Gundam Build Divers: Celestial Assault
by Spiceracksargent001
Summary: During an alpha test of a new game mode in GBN, the Force known as the ATX Team mysteriously find themselves trapped in an alternate timeline! Can this five-strong Force, with their Force Nest and custom Gunpla turned Mobile Suits, survive a world alight with a war against war itself?
1. Prologue

**Spice: Hello, ladies and gentlemen, Spiceracksargent001 again, here with a long overdue re-write. Welcome, to Gundam Build Divers: Celestial Assault, the long awaited rewrite of Armed Meteor! So, took a _lot_ of thinking, but I've decided that I'll give the "Eyes in SEED" type storyline another shot, in the 00 timeline instead, and instead of "(Insert OC name here) gets ported into (insert Gundam Timeline here) from Build Fighters because Plavsky Particles", I'm gonna be working this off of Build Divers, with a five-strong Force going in, each with a customized grunt MS. Special shoutout to Nemesis Astraea, the author behind Eyes in SEED. I consulted with him for a lot of the unit and design choices I went with for the Mobile Suits and ship I'll be using for my OCs here.**

**ELFI: The Captain does not own anything of this story except for the design for the ATX Team Mobile Suits, ship, and pilots. The Mobile Suit Gundam franchise is the property of Sunrise and Bandai.**

**Spice: As always, constructive criticism is welcomed and highly appreciated. With that out of the way, on with the story!**

* * *

Within four different, darkened rooms, only the glow of open GBN terminals providing illumination, five people sat down and plugged their Diver Gear into the open slot on the terminals.

"ID data confirmed, please scan your Gunpla."

The figures did as they were instructed. Glowing, translucent yellow circles rose from each of the circular pads the Diver Gears was slotted into after the Gunpla were put on top of each device. After the scan was complete, the Gunplas' eyes lit up as the yellow light coating each one from the scan shattered like glass.

"Login data confirmed. Are you ready? Dive start now!"

— GBN: Administrative area —

Stepping out of the login tube, the lead Diver who had just logged in looks around the login lobby for GBN's administrative server in wonder. The sound of someone approaching quickly drew the Diver's attention as he looks to see someone whose avatar was a Guncopter from the SD Gundam cartoon approaching. The Diver knew who this was from watching that massive tizzy between the Build Divers and League of Volunteers over that girl who was born from GBN itself, and later helped to deal with the bugged Raid Boss to help Build Divers save both the entire VRMMO and the girl. Sarah, he believed her name was. The Diver and his Force had chosen to opt out of the initial conflict, not sure how to feel about the girl and her effect on GBN before being transferred into a physical body and her data memory sent to its own private server using the Build Decal.

"Ah, good, you're here," the Game Master says as he opens a menu screen and sends something the Diver's way. "That pass I just sent your way will allow you all access deeper into the facility. Please equip it and follow me."

"Right," the Diver replies, voice revealing them to be male as he opens his own menu and equips the accessory in question, even as he and his four companions follows the Game Master. The pass, attached to a lanyard, appeared around his neck in a small puff of light, and revealed the Diver's handle: Blaze, as well as his status as a Rank-B Diver, the latter being in the form of a circular, silver emblem. Below that was his Force affiliation, which was designated as "ATX Team".

Eventually, the Game Master leads the ATX Team to a darkened room, the only light being a projector that illuminates the far wall as the ATX Team seat themselves on the opposite side.

"Now then, I'm sure you're all curious as to why I've asked your Force to come here today," Game Master says, opening up the meeting/briefing.

"That is one of the things we were curious about, yes," Blaze replies, indicating to his teammates as he speaks, their own nametags illuminated as well, revealing their handles and Diver Ranks.

Minerva – A Rank

Ciel – B Rank

Aria – C Rank

Flügel– C Rank

"Well then, let us begin the briefing. Over the past year and a half, Administration has been developing a new game mode to be implemented within GBN," Game Master explains, using a pointer to draw attention to various points of interest as different images flash across the board. "This new mode, which we are currently referring to as "Generation Mode", after the G Generations games, will allow a Force to visit a Gundam timeline of their choice, and interact with the flow of their events."

That got the various members of the ATX Team to look at each other in surprise and interest. Going into a Gundam timeline and possibly chance the course of events? It reminded them all of how they'd each created their own underlying sort of narrative for each of their Mobile Suits based around their base units and the modifications they'd made to them.

"The prototype version of this new game mode has finally been completed," Game Master continues, bringing attention back to him. "After much debate, Administration has decided to allow a single Force to be brought into the project to help alpha test this new system."

"And you decided on our ATX Team," Minerva replies, her statement being met with a nod from Game Master. "Why? Surely a more well-known Force such as Team Avalon, 7th Panzer, or even the Build Divers would have made the top of your list of options."

"Those Forces were considered to help Alpha Test this new mode," Game Master admits, "but with the experimental nature of this system, we decided against it. If something were to happen to any accounts linked with those three Forces as a result of an unforeseen complication with the new Generation Mode, especially Build Divers' Sarah or reigning champion Kujo Kyoya, Administration would be up to its neck with difficult to answer problems. Thus, it was decided that the Force we call in to test this new mode was to be competent enough to handle any such complications, but not so well-known that said complications would cause a heavy backlash if something happened to their accounts."

"Thus, you ultimately decided to call in our ATX Team," Flügel deduces. "After all, our Force is specialized in small unit tactics, each with a Gunpla that can fulfill a different role and complement each other's strengths while covering weaknesses. At the same time, however, despite two of our members being B-Rank and the Boss being A-Rank, our Force is only low-middle tier in terms of actual Force Rank, so our following is nowhere near as large as the Champion's Team Avalon, his rival's 7th Panzer Division, or the up-and-coming rookies of Build Divers."

"Correct," Game Master confirms with a nod of his head. "Keep in mind that alpha testing this new mode is entirely voluntary. If you refuse, we will not hold it against you, and shall contact the next Force on the list. Feel free to step outside a moment if you need to discuss this among yourselves."

Nodding each member of the ATX Team stepped out and began debating the pros and cons of agreeing to alpha test this new game mode.

Blaze was the first to speak. "So, what do you all think?"

"Well, I can certainly give the devs credit for creativity," Ciel comments. "Making a sort of story mode for anyone who wants to try their suit against actual pilots from a Gundam series? Too good a chance for any die-hard Gundam geek to pass up."

"This feature is the very definition of untested, however," Flügel counters calmly. "The devs have only now prepared it for alpha testing. If something happens, we do not know what sort of repercussions this test could have to our accounts."

"There's also our Force's reputation and our real world lives to consider," Aria adds in. "If we can pull this off successfully and give good feedback, our ATX Team could be tapped as long-term test personnel for any new features, complete with an offer of actual employment. If we bow out, our reputation may not take a hit, but we'll always be asking ourselves 'what if we _had_ accepted that offer?' and our effectiveness as a cohesive unit could drop."

Minerva was silent, eyes closed as she thought over everything. Blaze is the first to notice. "DP for your thoughts, Boss?"

Minerva opens her eyes after another solid minute of silent contemplation and looks to the rest of her Force. "For the four years our Force has been together, we have always felt like something was missing, a challenge unique to our skills," she says, her statement drawing thoughtful expressions and glances from the others. "This is a challenge unlike any other. A new possibility where our abilities can truly be tested. We have our Gunpla. We have our bond. We have our Force Nest. If the Administration believes that we are the Force that can perform this test, then we shall vindicate that belief!"

"Here, here!" Ciel cheers gleefully.

Blaze nods with a smile. "These kinds of odds? I don't mind placing a bet here."

Aria smirks and crosses her arms. "If the Boss says we got this, then we _got_ this."

"I suppose the only way we can truly know for sure if this was the right call would be to make it in the first place," Flügel sighs, then smirks. "Let's do this."

"Then we are in agreement?" Minerva asks, getting a round of affirmative responses from her team before nodding and leading the way back to the briefing room, where Game Master was waiting.

The Guncopter looked up at the Force members as they shuffled back into the room. "Have you made your decision?"

"We have," Minvera replies, speaking for the entire Force, as she was the ATX Team's leader. "We accept the challenge you present to us with alpha testing this new feature."

Though his avatar had no mouth, the ATX Team members could feel that Game Master was smiling as he nodded. "Thank you. Details on how to initiate the test will be forwarded to you within one real time hour upon your return to your Force Nest. Please head there now and prepare your Gunpla."

"Right," the other members of the ATX team reply as all five open their menus and quick-travel back to their Force Nest, leaving Game Master behind to set everything up on the Administration's end.

He sighs. "I am glad that our first choice of Force to approach with this agreed to the test. Still, this is untested ground we are trotting here. I pray they will be alright." With that, he gets up and leaves the briefing room to get everything needed on Administration's end of the test set up.

— 45 Minutes Later: ATX Team Force Nest, Lagrange 3 —

Blaze finishes up his system diagnostic as the Haros and Karols finish up their physical maintenance of his Gunpla. Shutting down the systems to prepare for transfer into the test, he soon kicks off of the cockpit and joins the other Force members in at the hangar floor. "The Jagd Dagger is ready to go," he reports.

Minerva, having been the first to finish up maintenance of her Gunpla, nods. "Good, the Dorado Titan is ready as well."

"Ma chère Tempête's ready as well!" Ciel cheers.

"The Zudah Busker is good to go," Aria reports.

"The Reginlaze Dragoner is primed and ready for deployment," Flügel finishes the impromptu rollcall as he powers down and locks up his Gunpla. With good timing too, as all five get a call from Game Master.

"We are almost ready to begin on our end, is your Force ready for the test?" Game Master asks.

"We are," Minerva replies, Blaze, Ciel, Aria, and Flügel nodding in agreement.

"Good. There is just one last thing to take care of before we initialize the test. Have you all talked about which Gundam series you wish to use as the timeline to interact with?"

"We have," Minerva replies, before looking to Blaze, who takes the que to step up.

"After much debate, we have decided to enter into this test with the Mobile Suit Gundam 00 timeline," Blaze relays. "The other alternative we had in mind was the Cosmic Era, but that one felt cliché to many of us."

Game Master nods. "Very well. We shall have the system set to begin in the year 2306AD, exactly one year before the start of the events of Mobile Suit Gundam 00. That should give you all enough time to go over what you all know and establish yourselves however you wish."

The ATX Team members nod in reply as Game Master cuts the line. "Right, we should probably be getting up to the bridge," Blaze comments. "I'd like for us to be able to take our Force Nest with us. It'll make things a lot easier for us to have a place to return to for rest and repairs."

"Agreed," Ciel replies with a nod as the Force members leave the hangar and begin making their way to the bridge of their Force Nest.

True to the ATX Team's status as a lower-mid tier Force, their base of operations was somewhat standard affair for a ship-type Force Nest: a Zanzibar II-class Mobile Assault Cruiser from Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 Stardust Memory, albeit one that had been given extensive, if moderately tame, modifications. The two J Missile Launchers have been complimented by a trio of 4-tube Missile/Anti-Beam Dispersal Shell Launchers on each flank, one between the 2-barrel Beam Gun turrets; two closer to the aft, and a pair of 3-tube Missile/Anti Beam Dispersal Shell Launchers at the top of the craft, the 2-barrel secondary beam gun turrets had been given Energy Extenders to allow for an increase in firepower without increasing their energy requirements, the top main gun turret had been replaced with a retractable M10 "Isolde" 42cm Triple Cannon turret, and the bottom main gun turret with a retractable pair of "Valiant Mk8" 110cm Linear Cannon turrets for added combat options when factoring in the potential of submarine combat and anti-beam defenses. The anti-air screen had also been given a good buff in the form of six Laser Guns to compliment the original eight 120mm Machine Guns, which were loaded with proximity-detonated flak shells to increase their effectiveness. Arguably the most expensive and radical changes to the ship's capabilities had been replacing the armor with warship-grade Laminated Armor, upgrading the engine systems with a Voiture Lumiere Lightwave Propulsion System, and adding in a Ramming Blade enhanced with Phase-Shift Armor for the occasional instance of _needing_ to ram the ship into something. Accommodating the Ramming Blade had been what necessitated replacing the main gun turret on the bottom of a baseline Zanzibar II with two flanking Valiants instead of a second Isolde.

Given the prevalence of energy-based weapons in the vast majority of Gundam timelines, adding a measure of anti-beam defense to their Force Nest was a natural choice to the group. The only question had been what _form_ of anti-beam defense would be supplemented by the Anti-Beam Dispersal Shells after the additions to the ship's guided ordinance loadout had been added. The group's options came down to Cosmic Era's Laminated Armor, Post-Disaster's Nano-Laminate Armor, and sticking true to Universal Century with an I-Field Generator. The I-Field had been eliminated almost right out of the gate because of power and cost issues: Incorporating an I-Field large enough to protect the entire ship would've been a huge drain on the Force Nest's power grid, not to mention an expense they simply didn't have the Force Points to easily afford. Thus, the running had been between the two different types of Laminate Armor. While Nano-Laminate Armor was certainly the more potent option of the two it was, again, more expensive than its Cosmic Era counterpart, which covered pretty much the entire ship in a single sheet of shaped, heat-dampening armor, and came stock standard with the cooling system used to maintain the armor's strength against beam weapons. This option also provided a marginal increase in physical defense, as the single sheet of armor, barring control surfaces, turrets, and the catapult and launch bay doors, meant that there were few, if any, rivets and welds that could serve as exploitable weaknesses for a skilled enough marksman.

This Zanzibar II-class ship, dubbed the "Arkbird" by the ATX Team upon first obtaining it, had been their Force Nest ever since they bought it, and had purchased all of the modifications to it bit by bit as they accumulated Force Points. In order to save both time and Force Points for the modifications, they'd traded in the various parts of the ship that they were replacing for price cuts. Still, it had taken quite some time to get everything - _years_ of playing GBN every chance they got, in fact - but in that time, all five had formed an unbreakable bond and were quite solid with their unit cohesion and battlefield tactics.

The Haros and Karels to keep the ship and Gunpla maintained were cheap to come by, but the Force was still building up the points to buy a proper bridge crew, so in the meantime, the Force Nest tended to stay away from combat unless they were going into a Quest with the ship itself, with the Force members manning various posts. Minerva, as she was the overall commander of the Force, as well as the oldest and most experienced of the five members, took a seat in the captain's chair. Blaze and Aria took up position in the CIC, the former in the XO seat, Ciel was at the helm, and Flügel was on sensors and comms.

Soon after they'd manned their posts, Flügel turned to Minerva. "Boss, we're getting another hail from the Game Master," he reports. "I suspect Administration's ready on their end."

"On screen," Minerva orders, turning her attention to the main screen as Game Master appeared on it. "Game Master. Our Force is fully prepared to depart. As this is uncharted territory, we request permission to bring our Force Nest with us."

"Approved. I had a feeling you would make such a request, and already cleared it with Administration while setting up the Gate that will lead you to the test," Game Master replies. "Make your way into space. As this is an untested feature, we have set up the entry to the test server away from any areas of Diver concentration. The coordinates should be forwarded to your helmsman momentarily. Once you reach the site, you need only enter the gate that will appear there to begin the test."

Ciel looks back to Minerva and nods. "I have the coordinates, Boss. Shall I take us up?"

Minerva spares Ciel a nod before returning her attention to Game Master. "We will be making our way there shortly." Once Game Master nodded and then signed off, Minerva devoted her full attention to getting the Force to their destination. "Spool up the engines and engage the Voiture Lumiere system! Once we get a good initial burn, I want all power going into the Solar Sail!"

"Right, boss!" Ciel cheers as she turns the ship in the direction they need to go while the Voiture Lumiere activates before firing the engines for the starting push. By the time the engines cut, the Lightwave Propulsion System has enough momentum to get the ship going at a good clip.

— Administrative area —

"Force ATX Team will be arriving at the Gate to initial alpha test of Generation Mode system in T-minus 5 minutes," an Administrator reports.

"Good," Game Master replies. "Let's have the final preparations finished and the Gate deployed by the time that they are a minute out."

"Sir!" the same Admin replies as the crew overseeing the test go about their work.

Turning to his personal screen, Game Master went over the capabilities of the Divers of the ATX Team, as well as those of their Gunpla and Force Nest, one last time. They were mostly from different regions, but had met in the Perisia Area and soon hit it off as a small Force.

Minerva, the overall commander of the Force, though he had a note in there that the other ATX Team members often referred to her as "boss", used a customized ovm-e Dorado. The second-generation Vagan mass-production Mobile Suit was largely unchanged, save for new shoulder and leg armor to accommodate a Hrududu II support unit on each. The Hrududu II on each shoulder was connected to a Weapon Cargo Pod, a Multi-Arm which held a 300mm Smoothbore Gun with underbarrel 60mm Machine Gun, and the arm of a Destroy Gundam, while the leg ones held the extra booster parts of the Advanced Hrairoo and Hrairoo II and connected to the lower legs of an NZ-000 Queen Mansa. The only truly custom weapon on the unit was a colossal anti-ship sword that looked rather normally sized in the large hands of a Destroy Gundam. Rather fittingly, her unit's designation was listed as the ovm-t Dorado Titan.

Blaze, effectively Minerva's second-in-command, operated a custom GAT-01A1 Dagger. The modular Mobile Suit's customization was one of the most drastic, having been effectively rebuilt from the ground up using the inner workings of an RGM-89D Jegan D Type. With the Jegan's Minovsky Reactor invalidating the Dagger's old battery, the Mobile Suit had its Laminated Armor reinforced with Trans-Phase Armor and the "Igelstellung II" 40mm CIWS replaced with a pair of Laser Guns, the extra space in the Dagger's head being devoted to enhancing the Mobile Suit's sensors and adding a blade antenna that worked more like a ramming horn backed up by Heat Blade technology. It also had the forearm armor redesigned based on the Gelgoog Jäger, which added a pair of Beam Spot Guns which could also double as Beam Tonfa and Beam Sabers. It still retained the hardpoints for mounting Striker Packs, though it was upgraded with a Multi-Pack Adapter to allow the use of Silhouette and Wizard Packs as well. One of the suit's mainstay setups, from what Game Master could see, was the Integrated Weapons Striker Pack with custom-built Claymore Launchers on the shoulders. He also had a few different front skirt options built to take advantage of the Jegan D Type frame having hardpoints there, though Blaze tended to favor the ones that added a pair of 3-tube Multi-Launchers to the unit's arsenal. He also noted that the unit had a Saturn Engine installed to help compensate for the unit's sheer bulk when fully equipped. Due to the drastic redesign, the unit's designation reflected its hybrid origin, being called the RGM/GAT-01J1 Jagd Dagger.

The other B-Ranked member of the ATX Team, Ciel, was the team's go-to aerial superiority unit, using a customized OZ-07AMS Aries from Gundam Wing. If the Jagd Dagger was a drastic redesign, then Ciel's custom Aries might was well be a completely different unit. With a new framework that heavily drew elements from both the Hyaku Shiki and Union Flag, the Gunpla's frame only retained the bare minimum for one to tell that it was, indeed, an Aries. The engine units were also completely different, using the warship-grade MMI-M729 Thruster Engines of the GINN High Maneuver Type which, when combined with the Hyaku Shiki and Union Flag-derived airframe, resulted in an Aries that was both faster and far more durable than the original. A pair of 110mm Machine Cannons were added to the torso for dogfighting and missile interception to replace the Aries Chain Rifle, while the Aries' Missile Pods was replaced with a much stronger Tail Unit like the one used by the Kyrios Gundam, and a Beam Rifle akin to the Barzam's was added to the right arm for extra firepower. Whether or not the Rifle doubled as a Beam Saber had never been demonstrated, so Administration was uncertain on that front. It still retained the hardpoints on the Aries' leg-mounted wings, which Ciel used for a variety of different weapons and equipment modules, all of which he noted were used by real-world fighter jets, with a couple of exceptions. Rather fitting of its new build and role, this custom Aries was called the OZ-07Tp Aries Tempête, or Aries Tempest to anyone who knew French.

Aria, whom he noted from her profile was Blaze's sister, seemed to quite comfortably fit into the role of team sniper with her modified EMS-10 Zudah. Redesigned with a near uncanny resemblance to the Tallgeese, the first Mobile Suit ever designed in the After Colony era, the new Zudah alleviated the original's engine problems simply by outright _doubling_ the number of Saturn Engines providing the unit with the Zudah's famed acceleration and mobility. The shoulder shield connected to the left shoulder via Drive Arm was given a major redesign. While it retained the original's ramming spikes, it replaced the hardpoints for Sturm Faust rocket-propelled grenades with a pair of Beam Saber Racks and the original Flare Launcher with a Gouf Custom's Heat Wire. The 135mm Anti-Ship Rifle was now a Linear weapon instead of a conventional firearm, and was connected to a Drive Arm on the right shoulder akin to the Tallgeese's Dober Gun, and the unit's arsenal was rounded out by a Gelgoog Jäger's Large Beam Machine Gun. Additional head armor incorporated various supplemental sensors that greatly enhanced the Zudah's ability to hit targets from far off with sniper precision. This enhanced unit was referred to as the EMS-10B Zudah Busker.

The final ATX Team member, Flügel, was effectively the team's Jack of All Trades, using a customized EB-08 Reginlaze. Using the lower body armor of an AMX-009 Dreissen to help center the unit's center of gravity, the machine retains the famed customizability of the Graze series, and it will often be kitted for whatever the team needs in a given engagement. One of the most common add-ons of the custom Reginlaze, however, is a modified FF armor unit from the RX-104FF Penelope. The FF (Fixed Flight) unit was originally developed for the purposes of allow a Mobile Suit to fly using a Minovsky Craft System, and since the Reginlaze can't use such a system on account of possessing an Ahab Reactor instead of a Minovsky Reactor, the FF Armor was retooled to provide the same effect by taking advantage of the Ahab Reactor's utility in the field of artificial gravity. Other than that, and replacing the Funnel Missiles with AMS-01H Heavy Missiles, the armor system was largely unchanged from the original, meaning that it still retained the Vulcan Guns, Beam Cannons, and arm-mounted shields with both Beam Cannons and Beam Sabers. Other than that, the only other noteworthy weapon the machine has been reported using was a custom spear that combined the drill mechanism of the Kimaris Vidar's Drill Lance with a powerful Linear Rifle. There was a lot more than just that at the unit's disposal, but the list was quite extensive and mostly used when its main setup was unviable for whatever the group needed, which was seldom enough for it all to go largely unused and, as such, unnoticed. This unit was designated the EB-08D Reginlaze Dragoner, or Reginlaze Dragoon to whoever knew a little German.

After going over the Gunpla, Game Master went over the capabilities of the ATX Team's Force Nest, let out a chuckle as he once more goes over just how extensively, yet tamely, the Force had taken an already formidable Zanzibar II-class cruiser and turned it into a juggernaut of technological crossovers, a trend he'd noticed was also present in the Force's Gunpla as well.

"ATX Team is now a minute and 15 seconds away from destination," an Administrator replorts as Game Master finishes up his reading. "Preparations complete, deploying Gate. Genesis Mode ready for alpha test."

Swapping screens with a swipe of his hand, Game Master's attention shifted from his reading to a split screen. In the upper left corner of the screen was an image of the Genesis Mode gate as it came into being. Next to it on the upper right corner was an image of the ATX Team's Arkbird, the Force Nest's aft emitting a curtain of sky-blue light as it moved into position for the test with its Voiture Lumiere Lightwave Propulsion System. The entire bottom half of the screen was dominated by a chronometer ticking down the seconds until the ATX Team entered the gate and began the test. Around him, various Admins sounded off the progress to the test's initialization as they worked.

"Gate entering stabilization phase. Drop-off coordinates for test locked."

"Anno Domini template data set."

"Server readouts green, no abnormalities detected."

"Gate stabilized. Data probes within ATX Team accounts standing by to receive and transmit test data."

"T-minus 30 seconds until ATX Team passes through the Gate. Still no abnormalities detected within test server."

Game Master watched with ever-growing trepidation as the Arkbird continued to draw ever-closer to the gateway leading to the alpha test of the new Genesis Mode while the chronometer counting down to the test's start entered its final countdown.

"ATX Team will pass through the Gate in 10…"

"9…"

"8…"

"7…"

"6…"

"5…"

"4…"

"3…"

"2…"

"1…"

"Crossing now!"

True to the Admin's report, the two split screens on Game Master's personal screen had merged into one when the ATX Team was five second out from the Gate as he watched the Arkbird entered without issue.

Letting out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding, Game Master closes the screen and returns his attention to the primary display, which was showing the Arkbird in the data tunnel one experiences going between Servers, and a readout of test data.

So far, it looked like things were going well. They were in transit and nothing seemed to be going wrong. That didn't mean that Game Master wasn't expecting _something_ to go wrong at some point, however…

And true to form with something completely untested, complications started to spring up. The test data readout was flashing red and blaring a warning klaxon, and Game Master could see the data tunnel begin to deteriorate. Yet still, the Arkbird valiantly soldiered on, fighting through what was being conveyed to the vessel as a sudden, growing turbulence within the tunnel.

"Abnormalities occurring within transit route! We're losing GBN's connection with the ATX Team's accounts!"

"Cancel the test!" Game Master orders quickly. "Pull the ATX Team out of the transit route with a Forced Logout!"

"Forced Logout function is not responding! We can't abort the transfer!"

"Transit Route integrity at 75% and falling! We'll lose all connection with ATX Team accounts if integrity drops below 33%!"

"Stabilize the route as best you can!"

"We're using every trick in the book to try to stabilize it, sir! Nothing we try seems to do more than briefly stall the degradation! Transit route integrity at 57%!"

"ATX Team has just crossed the halfway point of the transit route! They're too far along to turn around!"

Game Master slammed his arm into his chair as his eyes squinted shut. "Damn!"

"Transit route integrity at 40% and falling rapidly! We're losing them!"

Though he didn't want to, Game Master forced himself to look up, watching as the Arkbird continued to bravely fight against the now overwhelming turbulence, the modified Zanzibar barely keeping itself straight as the data tunnel crumbled around it. Seconds later, the Arkbird was consumed by a brilliant light before the image and test readout devolved into nothing but static.

"Transit route integrity at 25% and stabilizing," the Admin monitoring the transit route reports, tone choked with sadness at this point. "GBN has lost all connection with the ATX Team accounts."

Closing his eyes as the gravity of the situation sinks in, Game Master slowly rises to his feet and salutes the static-filled screen. "Good luck, ATX Team. I pray that wherever you have found yourselves, that you make it back to GBN safe."

* * *

**And so it begins. Let me know what you guys think. Also, there are a few different references to be found in the various designs. Entirely sure how subtle all of them are, but let me know if you can find 'em all. Until next time, this is Spiceracksargent001: signing off!**


	2. Chapter 1: A hectic first meeting

**Spice: Hello, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the first actual chapter of Gundam Build Divers: Celestial Assault! So, last time, the ATX Team accepted a proposal to alpha test a new game mode in GBN, only for something to go wrong in transit, and the five-strong Force is now lost, Force Nest and all. Let's find out what happened to them, shall we?**

**ELFI: The Captain only owns the ATX Team's Mobile Suits, ship, and pilots, as well as any additional Original Characters who appear in this story. Mobile Suit Gundam is the property of Sunrise and Bandai.**

**Spice: As always, constructive criticism is welcomed and highly appreciated. Without further ado, on to the story!**

* * *

— GBN: server transfer tunnel, the Arkbird —

Minerva watched as her Force's Arkbird passed through the gate into the ever-familiar data tunnel that one always experienced when going from one server to another in GBN. Wordlessly, she looked to Ciel, who was at the helm, hands on the control wheel. "How is our heading?"

"Everything's smooth sailing so far, boss!" Ciel cheers.

"So far, our bet's looking like a good one," Blaze comments from the XO chair. He turns in his seat to look at Minerva as she turns her attention to him. "Still, like Game Master said, this is a completely untested system. We'd best be ready for _something_ to go wrong."

Minerva nods grimly as she returns her attention to the viewport. "Agreed. Luck smiles upon us now, but she is a fickle and cruel mistress, especially in circumstances like these."

For the following half a minute, the trip continues smoothly, but then the ship starts to rock and tremble a little. Ciel, thankfully, is quick to stabilize the ship and keep her heading steady. The fact she had to use the wheel at all, though, draws Minerva's attention. "Problem, Ciel?"

"Just a little turbulence, boss," she reports cheerfully. "Nothing I can't handle."

That brought the others up short before Blaze mechanically turned his head to his fellow B-Rank Diver. "Ciel… transfer routes aren't supposed to have turbulence of _any_ kind," he explains slowly. "The fact that there _is_ turbulence is a bad sign."

Quickly Minerva looks to Flügel. "What is the status of the transfer route?!"

Sensing the urgency in his leader's tone, Flügel shakes himself from his stupor and quickly takes the sensor station before looking to Minerva. "The transfer route is deteriorating, and fast!"

"A quick look out the window could tell you that," Ciel reports grimly as she continues to stabilize the ship as the turbulence grows progressively worse. True enough, the other ATX Team members look out the main view port to see the data tunnel becoming corrupted at a good clip. Various parts of the tunnel turn a shining white, clearly attempts by Administration to stabilize the tunnel, but these sections are soon overwhelmed by the red corruption.

"We should probably strap ourselves in," Aria suggests, and those in a chair are quick to follow through on her suggestion. The only reason Ciel doesn't is that the helm station wasn't equipped with one, so the team's resident interceptor settled for bracing herself against her station, even as she continued working to keep the Arkbird level.

"What is the status of the transfer route's corruption?" Minerva asks once she makes sure everyone who can strap in has done so, and gotten Ciel's reassurance that she'll be fine as she continued to fight against the ever-increasing turbulence rocking the Arkbird as the data tunnel continued to crumble around them.

"Transfer route integrity at 57% and dropping," Flügel reports as he continues to monitor both their progress and that of the corruption. "Administration's clearly trying to keep it from dropping below a certain threshold, but everything they're doing seems to only stall the corruption for the briefest of moments."

Minerva nods as she looks to Ciel. "Any chance we can turn the ship around and abort the transfer?"

Ciel shakes her had grimly. "Sorry, Boss, but we're too far along for that," she replies. "Besides, with how shaky the tunnel is making things, I'm not sure I can keep us level if we try."

Minerva nods as she looks around the bridge, aside from Ciel, who was devoting all of her energy to keeping the Arkbird steady, everyone was looking to their leader with looks of recognition. They weren't going to make it through the tunnel before the Administration could keep the corruption from reaching whatever critical threshold existed.

With a sigh, Minerva lowers her head before looking up, watching as the data tunnel began to literally crumble around them. "Everyone. Whatever happens now, know that it has been an honor, to have you all stand at my side as a Force."

"Same here, Boss," Blaze replies with a small, sad smirk before the lightshow started swallowing the ship as the turbulence became overwhelming. By the time Administration was finally able to stop the deterioration, the ATX Team had already vanished off the face of GBN.

— Unknown location —

Minerva groaned as she fought her aching body back to consciousness. "Where are we?" she asks through gritted teeth as she looks around. Blaze, Aria, Flügel, and Ciel were all passed out, the former three still mercifully strapped to their station chairs. Ciel, however, was sprawled out across the floor, a consequence of her station not having a chair for her to strap into. "Ciel!" Unstrapping from her chair, Minerva made her way to Ciel, thankful GBN's VR included microgravity in space environments, so she had no problem moving in the ship. The fact there was microgravity meant that they had come out in a space environment, but the fact that she had to fight her body into waking up, as well as an aching soreness and fierce headache, were setting off alarm bells in her head that she _really_ hoped were false alarms.

Still, her Force came first in this situation. Reaching the Arkbird's standing helmswoman, Minerva put a hand on Ciel's shoulder and gently shook her into waking up. "Ouchie…" Ciel groans as she is roused back to consciousness. "What hit me… Boss? What happened? Where are we?"

"I do not know," Minerva admits before looking to the others. "For now, help me in waking the others. We must figure out what happened after that light consumed our Force."

"R…right…" Ciel moans softly as she slowly gets her bearings and makes her way over to Flügel while Minerva went to Blaze and Aria.

Once the five members of the ATX Team were awake and getting over their pains and headaches from whatever had happened, everyone was unstrapped and gathered around the tactical display table on the bridge. "So, here's what we know," Minerva says, calling the ad-lib meeting to order. "As we passed through the data tunnel on our way to the alpha test, something went wrong and corrupted the transit route. It can be assumed, given the aches we all are in the process of getting over, that whatever happened made our previously digital bodies into physical ones."

"Right; I've gone over the ship's status," Blaze nods, adding in his piece to the ATX Team's overall situation. "Where we didn't need to worry about munitions back in GBN, we do now. Just like how our avatars are physical bodies now, so too are our ship and machines. Ammunition and fuel won't simply respawn as its used anymore. It's fortunate that we'd given the ship a Voiture Lumiere system, otherwise, we'd be dead in the water, so to speak, once we ran out of fuel for the main engines."

"I've been going over the ship's positioning," Flügel reports. "Based on visual and sensory data, we're in a small cluster of resource satellites situated at Lagrange Point 4. Assuming the abnormality that brought us here did nothing to the date and timeline of our destination, we should be in the year 2306 AD, one year before the beginning of the events of Mobile Suit Gundam 00. Without access to a computer network to synch our ship's chronometer to, however, that's purely guess work."

"Well, if we are when we think we are, then there should be hidden Celestial Being outposts at every Lagrange Point," Aria comments. "If we can come to some sort of agreement with them, maybe we can have a place to rest while we think of a way home?"

Ciel goes to add to the conversation, but movement outside the main view port draws her attention. "Uh… guys? Look out the window," Ciel says, pointing at the movement. The ATX Team members all look out into space to see four streams of green particles come from one of the asteroids and begin making their way towards the Arkbird.

The group is silent for a moment before Blaze speaks up. "Well, looks like we may have to fight before we can talk to 'em."

"Get to your machines," Minerva orders. As one the Force nods and head out of the bridge, setting the automated systems to launch their Mobile Suits before putting the entire ship into standby mode before they do so.

— Minutes prior, Celestial Being resource outpost operations center —

Sumeragi Lee Noriega, Tactical Forecaster of Celestial Being, couldn't help but gape at the sight of the ship that had just entered the resource outpost's defense perimeter. One moment, the space was completely clear of anything but asteroids, and the next thing anyone knew, there was a ship that didn't match anything on file sitting a few kilometers out from the hidden base.

The ship looked like someone took one of those old space shuttles from the pre-Solar Wars era, supersized it, and then decked it out for military service. She could tell it was some sort of battleship because of the giant blade sticking out past the nose of the craft, and she recognized the closed gun ports on either side of the actual nose of the craft. Her initial assumption was that they'd been found out early and that the ship was there to destroy the outpost, but contrary to her belief, the ship was just… sitting there, as if it was dead in space.

"What do you want to do, Miss Sumeragi?" Feldt Grace, one of the bridge bunnies of Celestial Being's soon-to-be-completed mobile carrier, the Ptolemaios, asks as she looks to the woman.

"Has the ship powered up any weapons?"

"No ma'am, but scans of the ship's interior reveal it to be powered by some unidentified form of Nuclear Fusion Reactor," Feldt reports. "That shouldn't be possible, however. I thought nuclear power had been banned over a century ago?"

"That's what I thought too," Sumeragi replies, tapping her chin in thought, before glancing up at the image of the ship. "Either these guys have been living under a rock for the past 100+ years, or they're a shadow organization like us; one that continued to develop nuclear engines in defiance of the ban, at that."

"Do you think it could be another branch of Celestial Being? One that was kept secret until they were ready for deployment?"

"While that's certainly a possibility, I don't feel like taking too many chances right now. Scramble the Gundam Meisters, but tell them not to engage until we know for certain what the situation is. We simply don't know enough about what's going on right now to make any sort of clear judgement call."

"Yes ma'am," Feldt replies with a nod before turning back to her console. "All Gundam Meisters, scramble and establish a defensive line around the outpost. An unidentified craft has suddenly appeared within the defense perimeter. Establish the line and then standby for further orders. I repeat…"

— Celestial Being Mobile Suit hangar —

Lockon Stratos, Gundam Meister of Celestial Being's sniper unit, Dynames, scrambled into his flight suit as his fellow Meisters did the same. "Come on, people, let's double time it!"

"An unidentified craft suddenly appears on sensors _within_ the defense perimeter, and our orders are _not_ to engage and destroy the intruder?" Tieria Erde, Gundam Meister of the team's heavy weapons Mobile Suit, Virtue, fumes as he latches on his helmet.

"I don't get it either, Tieria, but those are our orders," Lockon reminds. "We'll establish our positions, and then wait while Sumeragi and the others try to figure out what the hell's going on." He then looks to the newest, and youngest, of the Gundam Meisters. "You hear that, Setsuna? No running off on your own this time; this _isn't_ a simulation. Breaking formation this time could _actually_ result in someone getting killed, you understand me?"

Setsuna F Seiei, Gundam Meister of Celestial Being's anti-Gundam trump card: the close combat unit Exia, simply nods and he latches on the helmet of his own flight suit. "Roger," he acknowledges dryly.

"Do we know anything about the ship's capabilities?" Allelujah Haptism, Gundam Meister of the transformable, high-mobility unit Kyrios, asks as he finishes sealing his own flight suit.

"No data confirmed! No data confirmed!" Lockon's partner, an orange Haro, chirps as its "ear flaps" move up and down.

"Like Haro said, nothing's certain as of yet," Lockon adds. "Sumeragi suspects it to be a combat ship of some kind, but aside from what's suspected to be a large ramming blade its armament profile, or even if it has the capacity to transport and deploy Mobile Suits, is unclear, and the hope is that we won't have to find out in the heat of battle."

One by one, the Gundam Meisters kick off towards their Gundams and board. After a brief startup sequence, all four Gundams spin up their GN Drives and race out of the hangar bay in a stream of particles. Dynames stopped a few meters out, readying himself to provide long-range fire support while the other Meisters took up position about halfway between the outpost and the unknown.

"Dynames to Sumeragi, we're in position," Lockon reports.

"Confirmed. Any change in activity from the unidentified vessel?"

"None yet. Wait, something's happening. I see a hatch opening on the ship's starboard flank, transmitting a visual."

Sumeragi is quiet as she looks at what Lockon's seeing using Dynames' sniper scope. "That's a catapult deck if I've ever seen one, Lockon. Looks like that answers the question of can the ship support a Mobile Suit squadron."

"Are we authorized to eliminate the unknowns?" Tieria asks impatiently.

"Cool your jets, Erde," Sumeragi orders sternly. "Until we know for certain why these guys are here, I want _none of you_ opening fire unless it's in self-defense. Is that clear?"

Even with his helmet polarized, Lockon could tell Tieria was scowling at not being allowed to vaporize the ship in front of them. "Understood."

"Good," Sumeragi replies before turning to Lockon. "Lockon, if one of the Meisters or an unknown start something, do what you can to keep both sides from killing anyone. We need answers, and we won't get that if someone puts a round through someone else's cockpit."

"Roger that. Speaking of, looks like our new friends are launching their Mobile Suits, sending you visuals now."

— Resource Outpost operations center —

With the camera feed synched up with Dynames' scopes, Sumeragi took in the details of each unit as it launched.

The first one out looked rather impractically designed. Between the bulbous weapon pods on its shoulders and the flight pack that was packing some heavy ordinance with those four cannons hanging over the shoulders, she could only wonder how it would be able to stand, let alone walk under gravity with how top-heavy the machine appeared to be. It had a mostly red color scheme, with white secondary and black detailing. Whoever was in that thing's cockpit clearly knew what they were doing, because it was moving quite fluidly despite how top-heavy the thing looked.

The next machine out was another somewhat bulky-looking unit, but it looked much more balanced with its center of gravity. Two engine pods jutted from the back, while a shield and a massive rifle were connected to the left and right shoulder, respectively. From what she could tell at a glance of the large gun, it appeared to be similar to Union and AEU Linear Rifles at base, but on a scale that would rate it as anti-ship artillery. An occupied charge port for a beam saber could be seen on the shield, as well as a folded ramming spike. Held in the unit's hands was a large rifle-like weapon that she assumed to be some kind of beam machine gun. It was a solid white color with blue detailing.

Following them was another bulky machine, one that was easily the most exotic looking of the ones deployed so far. It honestly made her think someone took a dragon and turned it into armor for a knight of some sort with how armed and armored the machine was. Its color scheme was a solid purple with sparse white trim.

The last machine out of the unknown vessel, unlike its compatriots, was a rather sleek-looking machine that looked to be partially derived from the Union's Flag. Between its streamlined frame and those large engines sticking straight out behind its shoulders and on its legs, it was clear to Sumeragi that this machine had been built for speed above all else, an interceptor through and through, though the tail unit it had attached to its back reminded her somewhat of the bomber unit that Kyrios could mount in its flight form.

At first, she thought that was it; then a fifth unit emerged from behind the vessel, and Sumeragi's mind temporarily stopped working when she saw it. The machine was massive, easily twice the size of even Kyrios, which was only half a meter taller than Virue. The only odd thing was that its massive legs and arms seemed to be integrated to a much smaller MS that looked vaguely draconic in design, with the giant arms attached to the core Mobile Suit's shoulders and separate from the core's own arms. What really had Sumeragi on edge about the titan of a Mobile Suit, however, was the massive blade held passively in the large left hand. It was a single-edged blade, and she could see the telltale exhaust ports of Vernier engines lining the back of the blade. She shuddered to think of what that monster could do to a ship.

"Uh… Sumeragi, are you seeing this as well?" Lockon asks, trepidation in his voice at seeing how the unknowns outnumber them 3 to 2 when counting the ship and the massive Mobile Suit.

"Seeing, still… working on believing, Lockon. Feldt, what's the status of the unknown ship?"

"One moment… It seems like the ship was pre-programed to go into some sort of standby mode after its Mobile Suit complement had launched. I don't think they have enough crew for both the ship and Mobile Suits. Also, each of the unidentified Mobile Suits, barring one, appear to be powered by a similar type of nuclear reactor as the ship. We are currently unable to identify the energy generator type of the third conventional Mobile Suit to launch." As Feldt explained this, energy readings from the carrier dropped down to negligible. Meanwhile, a radiation symbol was placed next to the ship and all of the Mobile Suits barring the one that looked like a knight wearing a dragon as armor, which had a trio of question marks next to it.

"Hm… Alright, Feldt, look for a comm frequency that'll reach them, Lockon, have the Meisters hold position until we can establish contact with the unknowns."

"Roger that, Sumeragi. Here's hoping they're… what the hell?! Tieria!" Lockon cut the channel at that, making Sumeragi realize that the one she'd hoped would be the coolest customer of the Gundam Meisters may have just done something _incredibly_ stupid…

— minutes prior, outside the resource outpost —

Blaze looked among the assembled Gundam standing between them and what was obviously one of Celestial Being's resource outposts. Sure enough, there were four Gundams. Exia, Virtue, and Kyrios were at the front, weapons equipped, though none currently actively being deployed, or aimed their way. A distance behind them, Dynames had its sniping visor lowered, but its GN Sniper Rifle was stowed, telling him that Lockon was merely observing them for now. Looking to the other ATX Team members, he opened their squad frequency. "What's the call now, Boss?"

"Maintain your positions, make no attempts to appear hostile," Minerva orders. "We need information. Flügel, I want you to attempt to isolate Celestial Being's frequency. Let us see if they are willing to sit down and discuss matters with us peacefully."

"Alright, Boss, beginning full spectrum scan," Flügel reports. "I should have something for you in half an hour at most."

Meanwhile, Celestial Being's Gundams were also holding steady, quietly observing the five "unknown Mobile Suits".

"Why are they just sitting there?" Allelujah asks.

"Don't know, could be they were expecting us to attack first," Setsuna suggests, leaving Kyrios' pilot pleasantly surprised.

"I guess that makes the most sense out of anything I can think of, Setsuna," Allelujah replies. "After all, they only scrambled their Mobile Suit compliment after _we_ did. This could just be a simple case of wrong place at the wrong time."

"We have enemies right in front of us, why are we simply standing around waiting for them to attack?" Tieria asks, irritated.

"I'm pretty sure these guys are considered neutral for right now, Tieria," Allelujah counters, hoping to calm Tieria down. "Remember, we know nothing about these guys. For all we know, they could be another branch of Celestial Being. Also, I'm picking tactical data from Miss Sumeragi, all but _one_ of those suits are powered by a Fusion reactor, same with the ship. One wrong move, and we'll be at Ground Zero of a nuclear detonation."

"Indeed. We should wait for Sumeragi Lee Noriega's tactical forecast before making any moves," Setsuna adds in agreement, making Allelujah proud that Setsuna was treating this situation with due caution.

Tieria, on the other hand, was at the end of his patience. "To hell with this!" With that declaration, Virtue raises its GN Bazooka and begins charging up a blast.

"Tieria!" Lockon shouts over the comm-link. "What the hell are you doing?! Sumeragi said _not_ to attack!"

"I don't have time for her hesitation! For the sake of the plan, we should be eliminating all who stand in our way!"

Not willing to listen to reason, Virtue soon opens fire, sending a powerful blast of concentrated GN Particles at the five Mobile Suits and the unidentified warship.

"Tieria, you idiot!" Lockon growls as he readies Dynames' GN Sniper Rifle. To his initial confusion, only the smaller Mobile Suits scrambled out of the way of Virtue's attack while the giant simply raised one of its large arms. Then he quickly learned why it wasn't getting out of the way as a plane of energy erupted from its forearm armor, creating an energy shield that Virtue's blast harmlessly splashed off of. After that happened, all five unknowns began readying weapons. A pair of beam blades erupted from the forearm armor of the horned unit, the sniper stowed its large Beam Rifle and brandished the linear cannon mounted on its right shoulder, the knight readied its spear, the interceptor aimed an arm-mounted beam rifle, and the titan readied its colossal blade.

Right as he was about to fire into the middle of the two sides to keep them from engaging each other, however, Setsuna surprised everyone by maneuvering Exia between Virtue and the unknowns, deploying its GN Sword, and aiming it _at Virtue_. "Setsuna…?"

"Setsuna F. Seiei, what is the meaning of this?!" Tieria shouts over the comm. "Have you lost your mind!?"

"Tieria Erde. We were not given the attack signal by Sumeragi Lee Noriega," Setsuna replies coldly. "You will receive one warning. Stand down, or be executed as a rogue Meister."

Setsuna's words flipped a switch for both Allelujah and Lockon, who readied Kyrios GN Beam Submachine Gun and Dynames' GN Sniper Rifle, respectively, and took aim at Virtue as well. Dynames was already in a good position, while Kyrios backed away a bit, enough to stay within the optimal range for its weapon, but have plenty of time to react in case Tieria does, indeed, go rogue. From the corner of his scope, Lockon could see that the five unknowns were lowering their weapons and looking amongst themselves. It seems Lockon didn't give Setsuna enough credit – the kid knew how to follow battlefield procedure after all.

Tieria, meanwhile, was stunned into silence by Setsuna's warning, as well as acknowledging target locks from both Kyrios and Dynames. He instinctively knew that neither of the two Gundams would be able to break through Virtue's GN Field with their beam weapons, but Exia was a whole different story. Its physical GN Sword was purpose-built to counter GN Fields; Virtue's greatest defense would serve him little here. Slamming his fist into the armrest of his chair, Tieria bit back a curse and lowered Virtue's arms before letting go of the GN Bazooka. Dynames flew up to join the group as Kyrios used its free hand to take possession of Virtue's main weapon.

"Setsuna, escort Tieria back to the hangar, I imagine Miss Sumeragi has some choice words for our unexpected hot head here," Lockon orders before switching to a private channel between him and Setsuna. "Be sure to tell Tieria that any deviation from the path back to the hangar will be seen as him going rogue."

"Understood," Setsuna replies in acknowledgement, accepting Virtue's GN Bazooka from Kyrios before carrying out his assignment, Virtue not making any attempts to make a break for it as it's escorted back into the outpost's hangar bay.

Lockon kept an eye on the two up until their particle trails disappeared inside the asteroid. Only once that was done did the sniper return his attention to the unknowns and switch to an audio-only open frequency, hoping their comms would pick up his transmission. "I apologize for the actions of my teammate. I hope this doesn't sour our relations before they can even begin."

Fortunately, it seemed to work as the horned unit deactivates its forearm beam sabers. "That is our hope as well," a male voice replies over the comms, the horned machine nodding its head to indicate its pilot was the one speaking. "I will be honest with you, we were not entirely anticipating arriving where and how we did, and it seems to have scrambled a couple of our ship's less critical systems. If it is at all possible, we would like to dock to run some diagnostics and take stock of our situation."

"Well, this just went above my pay grade," Lockon jokes. "If you'll give me a minute, I'll get in touch with someone qualified to make that kind of call."

The horned Mobile Suit looks to his companions for a moment before looking to Dynames and nodding. "We can wait."

"Great, thanks," Lockon says, breathing a sigh of relief before switching channels to his one-on-one comm with the ops center. "You get all that, Sumeragi?"

"I did, and I give them permission to land," Sumeragi replies. "Have the pilots of those machines meet me in the briefing room ninety minutes after they touch down. I'd appreciate it if you escort them there."

"You got it," Lockon acknowledges before switching back to the open frequency. "Okay, new guys, you've got clearance to land your ship in the hangar. After you land, you've got an hour and a half to run diagnostics on your ship and make yourselves presentable, because my boss would like to speak with you."

"Very well, we'll stow our Mobile Suits and bring our ship, the Arkbird, in for docking," the male voice from before replies before the five machines turn and fly back to their carrier. Lockon watched with a smile as the catapult door on their ship (the Arkbird, apparently) opened again to let the four regular sized Mobile Suits into the hangar bay while the titan went to the back of the ship, where he guessed a launch bay existed to let the colossus deploy. After waiting a few minutes with Allelujah, the energy readings from the ship rose again and Lockon nodded Dynames' head before pointing for Kyrios to take post at the ship's other flank as they escorted it into the outpost's hangar, which also had a dock for spacecraft.

Once the Arkbird was safely connected to the outpost's dock, Lockon and Allelujah brought their machines back to their berths, where he saw Exia and Virtue already docked. Despite Tieria's near screw-up, Lockon was glad things didn't go as bad as they could've today.

* * *

**Spice: And that's chapter. Now, before anyone gets in a tizzy about Tieria being the one to (nearly) start a fight between the ATX Team and Celestial Being, think about it. Lockon (Neil Dylandy) is too cool under the collar to let his emotions get the better of him about anything except terrorists and Mr. Blood Knight Personified (also known as Ali al-Saachez), and Allelujah's split personality-induced PTSD would never let him pull that kind of trigger without receiving the go-ahead from Sumeragi beforehand. That left Tieria and Setsuna as the most likely candidates that fire the shot that nearly sparks a fight.**

**Setsuna idolizes the Gundam as an ideal: that of war's eradication. Sure, he makes some questionable calls, such as getting out of the cockpit in the middle of an active warzone because Ali was there and he wanted to see where the bastard's "God" was, but in his eyes, to start a fight without it being part of his mission parameters would be something **_**other**_** than what the Gundam stands for. This meant that I knew for a fact, even before what he pulled in Azadistan, that he would also never start a fight with unknowns without Sumeragi's expressed permission.**

**Tieria on the other hand, when compared to the rest of the Gundam Meisters in season 1, is arguably the most hot-blooded of the original four. To him, the plan comes before everything else, and he pretty much wears his heart on his sleeve for it despite his aloof exterior. To Season 1 Tieria, prior to Veda's being highjacked, Veda and Aeolia's plan are the only things he has in the world, and something that compromises either is inexcusable in his eyes. He's also the most critical of everyone else in Celestial Being, which means that, in the end, he would be the only one to disregard an order from Sumeragi to **_**not**_** shoot at a hostile after so much time passed without getting permission to open fire.**

**Any-who****, now that that little lecture's out of the way, I will see you all when I finish another chapter of one of my stories. Until then, this is Spiceracksargent001: signing off!**


	3. Chapter 2: Meet and Greet

**Spice: Well, I **_**was**_** on a roll, now it's kinda slowed down again. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, Spiceracksargent001 again, with a new chapter of Gundam Build Divers: Celestial Assault. Last time, the ATX Team found themselves just outside a Celestial Being resource outpost, where a certain Wave Motion Gun enthusiast nearly sparked a fight before a certain ex-child soldier did his job as Celestial Being's trump card against rogue Meisters. Yeah, I'm not gonna sugar-coat this, Tieria's in big trouble for going against Sumeragi's orders the way he did. Either way, the ATX Team is now safely docked within said resource outpost and have a chance to breathe a sigh of relief and collect themselves before meeting with the tactical forecaster herself.**

**ELFI: The Captain only owns the ATX Team's Mobile Suits, Ship, and Pilots, as well as any other Original Characters that appear. Mobile Suit Gundam as an overall franchise is the property of Sunrise and Bandai.**

**Spice: So, without further ado, on with the story!**

* * *

— The Arkbird, 1 hour, 5 minutes after docking —

Blaze sighs as he finishes compiling an actual diagnostic of the ATX Team's Force Nest turned battleship. Turned out a bunch of the non-critical systems had in fact taken damage from the data tunnel's deterioration and their subsequent arrival in the 00 timeline. Some were less damaged than others, but still, it would take a month at best for the Haros to finish repairing everything, and a good number of the Haros and Karels got pretty banged up too, to the point that they'll need repairs, themselves, before they can help speed up the ship's repairs.

With the diagnostic finished and sent to Minerva's Diver Gear (he was thankful for the small mercy of the ATX Team having access to their Diver Gears to communicate with each other), Blaze left the bridge and began making his way to his quarters to change into something nicer for their meeting with Sumeragi. As he does so, he thinks back to the little meeting that the rest of the ATX Team had about five minutes after they'd docked.

— Flashback, one hour ago —

Blaze and Minerva looked to the other members of the ATX Team as they were gathered in the briefing room aboard the Arkbird. "Alright, everyone, we've completed step one of our own plan for going through this," Blaze says, calling the meeting to order. "We've linked up with Celestial Being and, barring Tieria apparently being more hot-blooded than we'd assumed, we've successfully gained clearance to dock at one of their resource outposts. The same one the Gundams are apparently being stored in until the Ptolemaios is complete."

"Now comes the difficult part," Minerva says, taking over. "We must convince Celestial Being to allow us into their ranks, which shall be no small task."

Flügel nods. "Agreed. Once they see our faces, they'll likely have Veda run background checks, which will likely turn up blank since we did not exist in this world until just now."

"Yeah, well, that's also why we agreed not to go to one of the three Power Blocs," Aria counters. "They'd also run background checks, but it turning up blank would be a lot harder to explain to _them_. With Celestial Being, if we can convince them to let us join their standing forces, Veda will probably take care of our ID problems for us."

"It is the most accessible route for us to go," Ciel comments idly.

"Either way, the hard part becomes convincing Sumeragi that we're genuinely here to help," Blaze says, getting the team back on track. "If we're going to do that, no point calling each other by our Diver handles. If these bodies really are flesh and blood now, I see no point in not using our real names. Not in public and for this meeting with Sumeragi, at least."

"A fair point," Minerva replies with a nod. "My Diver handle is actually my full first name. My full name is Minerva Zonvolt."

"Same here!" Ciel chirps cheerfully. "Ciel Nanbu, at your service~"

"Well, since we seem to have a trend of using our names as a basis for our Diver handles, I am Alexander Flügel," Flügel comments as he introduces himself with his full name.

"My real name is Aria Browning," Aria says with a smile before motioning to Blaze. "And this is my twin brother…"

"Seth Browning," Blaze continues, noting that the others, barring his sister, were giving him slightly odd looks. "In order, yes, I know I'm the odd one out for the whole "real name as the basis for the Diver handle" trend everyone else on this Force has going, and Aria and I are fraternal twins. I'm older than her by an hour, give or take about ten minutes."

Minerva simply nods her head, accepting Blaze's response. "Very well. In the meantime, what is our plan for convincing Celestial Being we are on their side."

"Way I figure it, our best shot is to just be up-front about it without giving away how, _exactly_, we came to be here," Blaze replies, looking among everyone else. "After all, we didn't exactly plan to come in where we did, nor did we expect a run-in with Celestial Being itself so soon. At this point, our best chance is to just wing it and hope our bet's a good one, right?"

"Not like we have much of a choice in the matter," Aria comments in her brother's support, then looks to Minerva. "That's alright with you, right, boss?"

Minerva closes her eyes in quiet contemplation before looking to Flügel and Ciel. "They are right."

Flügel grimaces, but nods, accepting that they really have no other options right now. Ciel simply nods in agreement. Nodding back, Minerva looks to Blaze. "Blaze, since you are the one who suggested this, _you_ will be the one to handle the majority of our negotiations with Celestial Being."

"Wouldn't have brought it up otherwise, boss," Blaze replies with a shrug.

Minerva nods. "For now, however, run a full diagnostic of the Arkbird and send a report to me, just in case. Once you are done, get yourself into something presentable and meet the rest of us at the airlock into the outpost. Understood?"

Blaze saluted. "You got it, boss."

— Present time —

Blaze sighs as he opens his closet in his and Aria's quarters (the other Force members knew the two were siblings, so they didn't question them sharing a room, but until today, the others never actually knew that they were twins) and begins sorting through his outfits, finding the right one to wear. Normally he'd just access the menu and pick an outfit, but this was actual reality, not Virtual Reality, so he had to do things manually again. Not that he was complaining, having to do things by hand again was actually a nice change of pace for him.

"Still, though. With how little Minerva engages herself in the day-to-day stuff with this Force, it makes you question who between me and her is _actually_ in charge here," he muses to himself before shrugging. "Eh, nothing I can really do about it. I don't really mind, per say, and Aria's always around to lend me a hand when I need it."

After changing into something he felt comfortable wearing to a meeting like this, Blaze left his and Aria's room and made his way to the airlock. The others had already gone and changed into more formal attire while he was busy compiling the diagnostic report, so he would be the last to arrive. When he did, he couldn't help but chuckle as he walked over to the rest of the ATX Team. "Guess we were all on the same wavelength, picking our Titans uniforms for this meeting."

"It is the most formal attire we collectively own as a Force," Flügel replies, "and it's easy and comfortable to move in, so the choice was obvious."

"True that," Aria comments. "So, ready to play diplomat, bro?"

"As ready as I can be on such short notice," Blaze admits.

"Then let us proceed," Minerva says as she presses the button to begin connecting the Arkbird's airlock to that of the dock's mooring and open the door.

— Outside the Arkbird —

Lockon couldn't help but whistle a bit as he gets an up-close look at the vessel that now had berth in the resource outpost as he made his way down the gangway to meet the newcomers at the airlock. The ship had exposed all of its weaponry, though the safeties were still on, so he guessed it was for running their ship's diagnostics. The vessel couldn't have been bigger than a cruiser, but from what he could see, it was geared up like a cross between a battlecruiser and an assault carrier. He could only see one side of the ship, but what he could see was certainly impressive, especially if what he saw was mirrored on the other side of it like he suspected it would be. A triple-barrel 42cm cannon turret on top of the ship, two double-barrel beam cannon turrets near the nose of the ship on the flanks, a large missile tube on the housing for the upper turret and a 4-tube missile launcher bank between the casings, two more 4-tube banks between the turret housings and the engine assembly, a 110cm Linear Cannon turret next to the giant ramming blade on the bottom, and an array of both machine _and_ laser guns for point-defense. "Quite the flying arsenal they've got here for their carrier ship. Can only imagine what it could do with a full crew onboard to allow it and those Mobile Suits to operate simultaneously."

Bringing up a status read on the connection between the airlocks of the ship and the dock itself, he smiled as the connection finally shifted from red to green. "Right then. The comm channel was audio-only, so, time for the face-to-face."

About a minute later, the door opened, and Lockon leaned against the railing on the gangway as he watched the new faces disembark one by one.

At the front was a fairly young-looking guy. Only a few years older than Setsuna, if he had to hazard a guess. He was decently tall at a good 5'11" in height, with messy, brown hair that looked to be dyed yellow the tips of his bangs with blue eyes. Following him was a girl who looked very similar baring the obvious gender differences, making Lockon guess that they were twins like himself and his brother. The only other difference between the two that he could see was their hair. Where the guy's hair was short and messy, the girl's hair was in a well-kept, shoulder length ponytail, and had blue hair dye that matched her eyes where her assumed brother had yellow. Both were also wearing what looked to be headbands with articulated, robotic cat ears.

Right behind them was a giant of a woman, standing a little under seven feet tall from what Lockon could see, with raven black hair that went down to her mid-back and bright, green eyes. Her body was well-built, and from the sheathed great sword that rested in a scabbard on her back, he could only guess how skilled and strong she was at swordplay. She was also the oldest looking of the group, so he figured that either she was in charge, or at least a mentor for whoever _was_ in command of this small group.

The next one out was another male, and also the second oldest from what he could tell. He was fairly plain in stature, standing an even 6' in height with close-cropped, dirty blonde hair, and heterochromia eyes, one green, the other purple, behind a pair of square-framed glasses.

Finally, was one final girl, the shortest of the bunch at 5'6", with wind-swept blonde hair that fell down to her waist, bright green eyes, and a massive smile on her face. Lockon also couldn't help but note that she was, somewhat ironically, the second most well-endowed of the three girls in the quintet, behind the raven-haired Amazon.

All five were wearing identical uniforms, a buttoned up, black, military-style dress shirt with red collar, shoulders, and cuffs, black dress pants, which two of the three girls, the tallest among them the exception, wore under red skirts that went down to just short of their knees, and stylized, black combat boots. The only other standout was the insignia embroidered over their hearts: a gold, stylized bird emblem, which had a blue star separating the wings from the bird's head and neck, with the letters "ATX" in bold, serif style capital letters next to it. What the letter could possibly stand for escaped Lockon, but he imagined it would become clear at the meeting with Sumeragi.

"You're the new faces, right?" Lockon asks before motioning to himself. "I'm Lockon Stratos, pilot of the Gundam Dynames. Now then, which of you is the pilot of that horned Mobile Suit?"

"That would be me. I'm Seth Browning," the male twin, Seth, apparently, says with a nod before motioning to each of his teammates as he names them. "This is my twin sister Aria, our teammates Ciel Nanbu and Alexander Flügel, and our boss, Minerva Zonvolt."

Lockon nodded along as Seth's sister, then the blonde girl, the guy in the glasses, and finally the amazon all nodded or gave a greeting as Seth gave their names. "Right then, this little guy is my Haro, Orange," Lockon says, motioning to his little buddy.

"Pleased to meet you! Pleased to meet you!" Orange chirps as he bounces up and down.

"Now that the meet and greet's out of the way, if you'll all follow me, Sumeragi is expecting you," Lockon says, motioning with his hand for the new arrivals to follow him as he guides them to the tactical briefing room.

— Sumeragi Lee Noriega's Quarters —

From within her quarters, Sumeragi took in the faces, appearances, and names of the five new arrivals thanks to her access to the security feeds. As Celestial Being's tactical forecaster, and, therefore, the only person in the organization besides Tieria whose job required consistent access to the quantum processing supercomputer that was the heart and mind of Celestial Being's operations, she was able to levy a few concessions with her personal quarters, both within all of Celestial Being's resource outposts and aboard the Ptolemaios once it was finally ready to leave dry dock. Those concessions equated to private access to all security feeds within every Celestial Being base of operations open to the main Gundam Team, a small terminal that connected her to Veda to assist with tactical forecasts, and a personal fridge stocked full of copious amounts of alcohol in every known drinkable form.

"Veda, do me favor and run their faces and names through every database you can get access to," she requests of the supercomputer that formed the core intelligence network of Celestial Being. Sumeragi watched as the security feed was overlaid by a green grid as Veda took in the appearances of all five of the unknown pilots. Sumeragi then watched as, one by one, databases from across the world were accessed and then discreetly, quickly, and thoroughly vetted as Veda checked each and every one of them for a match, only to come up with no matches. Once the final one, a sweep of Veda's own extensive databanks, much of it containing information that she, herself, was not privy to, came up with nothing, Sumeragi hummed. "Nothing at all huh…? Well then, time to see what our mysterious new friends have to say about themselves. I'll have a recording device forward a transcript of the meeting and we'll come up with a plan for how to handle them from there. Sound good?"

When she got a positive response from Veda, the tactical forecaster got up from her chair, killing the security feed on her end as she donned her "dress uniform", pocketed the aforementioned recording device, and grabbed two entire, unopened, cases of her booze. Normally she wouldn't bring alcohol with her to what was going to be a meeting just shy of an interrogation on her part, but something in the back of her mind told her she'd need it.

Somehow, Sumeragi had a sneaking suspicion that she would _not_ be able to get through the coming meeting sober.

— CB Briefing Room —

Lockon watches in interest and slight amusement ATX Team members all lounge at different parts of the briefing room, kinda just doing their own thing. Minerva was meditating in the middle of the floor, sword in her lap, Flügel was off in the farthest corner from the door typing away at a rather uniquely shaped personal data terminal the likes of which he's never seen before, Seth and Aria were leaning against a wall, discussing what sounded like unit formations and combat tactics to Lockon while the former also held one of those strangely-shaped datapads. Ciel was… literally bouncing off the walls and giggling like a loon as she did so. Lockon could also swear it looked like she was trying to intentionally flash the twins, but they were more focused on their conversation and the screen of their datapad than what the petite blonde was doing.

Soon enough, the door opened, and Lockon looked over, smiling a little as Sumeragi floated into the room. "Lockon. I trust our guests have been behaving themselves?" the busty brunette asks as she looks at the various ATX Team members pulling themselves from what they were doing to turn their attention to her.

Lockon shrugs. "More or less," he reports, feigning ignorance to the alcohol the woman was quite blatantly carrying with her. "They've just been keeping themselves entertained while they waited."

"Alright. Feel free to head out now, maybe see if you can't drill it into Tieria's head for once that it's risky for Meisters to act in blatant disregard of my mission plans," she suggests. "He's in confinement for now, but I'll be letting him out once we're done here since nobody was actually hurt."

"Roger that," the sniper says with a lazy salute before nodding to the ATX Team members. "Have fun talking with Sumeragi, you five. I'm gonna go see if Tieria's cooled down now."

Sumeragi watches with an amused smile as Lockon throws Celestial Being's "guests" an over the shoulder wave before leaving the briefing room, the automated door sliding shut behind him. Once she was alone with the new faces, she took in the appearance of each before calling the meeting to order. "Right, may as well get names out of the way. My name is Sumeragi Lee Noriega; I'm the one in charge here."

Seth nods. "A pleasure, Miss Noriega," he says in greeting. "I'm Seth Browning, callsign Blaze. That's Minerva, our field commander and anti-ship specialist, my twin sister and our sniper, Aria, Flügel, our team's multirole, and lastly Ciel, our team's interceptor. Together, our little squad is known as the ATX Team."

"Well, Blaze, since your companions all have their designated specializations, what's yours?" Sumeragi asks with a smirk. "Also, feel free to just call me Sumeragi or Miss Sumeragi. Miss Noriega makes me feel old."

"Very well, Miss Sumeragi," Seth acquiesces with a nod. "As for myself, I'm the team's linebreaker. My job is, quite simply, to hit hard, hit fast, and plow through enemy formations to break up unit cohesion."

Sumeragi lets out an appreciative whistle at that. "Quite a diverse lineup of jobs you guys cover," she remarks. "Well then, shall we get the meeting started?"

Seth smiles and nods. "Let's. Hope you brought some refreshments, Miss Sumeragi, 'cause this could take a while. I suppose I should start this with a question, though. How familiar are you with Multiverse Theory?"

— Two and a half hour later —

Sumeragi was right, she was _not_ getting through this meeting sober. To her credit, though, she had only _just now_ finished her first case of booze and wasn't even making for the second one. What Seth had told her was… out there, but not so wildly so as to be completely unbelievable.

In short, the ATX Team were an extraordinarily small, but exceptionally skilled, mercenary band who had been hired by a deep space exploration group to help testbed an extremely experimental FTL drive, the prototype for which was mounted on their ship: the modified Zanzibar II-class ship Arkbird. From what she could understand, the drive was, in part, based off of a common form of artificial gravity tech from their dimension. Something went wrong during the field test, however, as one could reasonably expect with such highly experimental tech. What was originally supposed to be a round trip to Jupiter, which was on the complete opposite side of the sun at the time, and back using the new FTL system ended up going FUBAR as the ship passed through the sun's photosphere, which ended up supercharging the drive to the point it straight up tore open an unstable wormhole which sent the entire ship through the dimensional plane to where they now stood before her.

The artificial gravity tech itself is based around an uncommon type of power core from their world apparently called an Ahab Reactor. When Sumeragi mentioned that the outpost's sensors couldn't identify the output type of one of the ATX Team's Mobile Suits, Seth freely admitted that it was likely Flügel's mobile suit, called the Reginlaze Dragoner, which was, in fact, powered by an Ahab Reactor, whereas the rest of the team's Mobile Suits, and even the Arkbird itself, used the much more common Minovsky Fusion Reactor. When Sumeragi pressed for details, he simply said that all he knew was that the Minovsky Reactor worked off the Nuclear Fusion of Helium-3 and Deuterium and that he knew even _less_ about the mechanics of an Ahab Reactor. He gave no tells that he was lying, so Sumeragi ultimately acquiesced and dropped further questioning on that matter.

Still, their ship's FTL was totaled, and without the original scientists with them to repair the drive, it would require pretty much tearing the thing apart to figure out how it was put together in the first place, _trying_ to fix everything was broken, and then putting it back together from the ground up, a process that would require a significant amount of time and access to resources that they simply didn't have access to at the moment. The rest of the Arkbird's damages from the surprise dimensional journey, while extensive, were far more readily addressable.

"Well, you guys have given me a lot to think about," Sumeragi admits with a thoughtful hum. "I can't promise anything, but I'll bring this up with someone more qualified to make a judgement call about how things proceed from here. Mind waiting a bit for me to do so?"

"We're not exactly able to go anywhere," Seth admits with a shrug. "Even if we did, we're packing a _lot_ of tech this world possibly doesn't have compared to ours. It'd only be a matter of time before the nations of this Earth Sphere start hounding us to get at our tech."

"Well said. I'll have Lockon give you guys a tour while I go talk to my superiors," Sumeragi replies as she floats out of the room.

Lockon floats in a little later and smiles at the ATX Team. "Okay, boys and girls, Sumeragi asked me to show you around while she does her thing, so, if you'll all follow me," the sniper says with an easygoing smile as he motions for them to follow him.

— Hangar observation room, half an hour later —

Setsuna F. Seiei and Allelujah Haptism were looking at the four Gundams as they sat in their berths. No words were exchanged between the two Gundam Meisters, and the silence between them was a content, professional one as they were lost in their thoughts. For Allelujah, he was thinking about his missing friend, Marie Parfacy, and how he hoped she would never have to go into battle, let alone experience anything like what he went through. For Setsuna, he was quietly contemplating how he could become one with his Gundam, Exia. All he cared about was the eradication of war.

The sound of the door opening drew their attention to it as Lockon and the ATX Team entered. "And here's our ready room, where we suit up and perform one last look-over of our machines to make sure everything's in working order," the sniper explains to Celestial Being's guests.

"Miss Sumeragi got you playing tour guide, Lockon?" Allelujah teases with an easygoing smile.

"You guessed it Allelujah. These guys call themselves the ATX Team," Lockon says in introduction before turning to said guests. "These two are my teammates."

"Allelujah Haptism," Allelujah speaks up, introducing himself. "I pilot the Gundam Kyrios, the winged machine that helped escort your ship into dock."

"…Setsuna F. Seiei," Setsuna eventually says quietly in introduction. "Gundam Meister of the Gundam Exia."

"Exia's the close-combat specialist of the four Gundams," Lockon explains when it became clear Setsuna wasn't going to. "My machine is the Gundam Dynames, the sniper-type of the four and the other machine that escorted you in. The big one next to Kyrios, the one that shot at you, is the Gundam Virtue, our heavy-weapons type. Tieria's the pilot of that one, but he's currently taking a little time out in solitary for going against Sumeragi's orders, so you won't be meeting him for a little while yet."

"So, what machines do each of you pilot?" Allelujah asks. "They were certainly different. I've never seen Mobile Suits like them before."

"I pilot the Jagd Dagger, the horned MS," Seth explains. "It's a modular, multi-role Mobile Suit, but I typically outfit it for linebreaker duties."

"Mine's the Zudah Busker," Aria comments soon after her brother. "It's a high-mobility sniper-type, but don't underestimate it in close combat just because its main duty is providing fire support."

"My machine is the Reginlaze Dragoner," Flügel adds in. "Like the Jagd Dagger, it is a modular Mobile Suit capable of fulfilling a variety of tasks."

"Tempête-chan's my machine!" Ciel chirps with a flirtatious wink. "The Aries Tempête is a high-speed flight-type built for aerial superiority dogfighting!"

"I control the Dorado Titan," Minerva replies last. "It is a general-purpose unit like most of the others, but my primary weapon is the Type-0 Ship-cleaving Sword."

Lockon whistles. "Quite the lineup you guys have going for ya," he comments.

"I'll say. A diverse lineup like that can tackle just about anything," Allelujah adds.

— Sumeragi Lee Noriega's Quarters —

While the ATX Team were chatting it up with the Gundam Meisters, Sumeragi watches as Veda finishes copying and reviewing the recording of the meeting that she had with the ATX Team. "What do you think, Veda? They telling the truth?"

An analysis from the Quantum computer appears on Sumeragi's screen. "I thought so. They're being honest, but there's stuff that they're withholding until they know they can trust us," she summarizes. "About what I would do in their situation, honestly. What do you think we should do with them?"

Various scenarios began being displayed and played out across the screen, showing various scenarios regarding the ATX Team's next steps in this world. One by one, scenarios began being marked with a big red "X" and removed until one final one remained, and a smile played across Sumeragi's face. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well," she replies to the path of action Veda was suggesting. "Work up IDs for the ATX Team members to use while they're here, and lock everything we know and will learn about both them and their tech at your highest possible security level. In the meantime, I'll get Lockon to shepherd them back to the briefing room and give them our sales pitch."

After getting an affirmative reply from Veda, Sumeragi tapped into the security feeds to see where Lockon and the ATX Team were. Soon enough, another smile worked its way to her face as she saw that they were in the MS hangar's ready room/observation deck, the ATX Team chatting with Allelujah and Setsuna. Sumeragi chuckles a little, then tunes into the intercom. "Lockon, if you're finished with the tour, could you escort the ATX Team back to the briefing room, please?" she requests. "Allelujah, Setsuna, you can come along too, if you want."

— Briefing Room —

Once more, Lockon watched as the ATX Team members entertained themselves while they waited for Sumeragi to arrive. The only real difference was that Allelujah and Setsuna were there now. Fortunately, they didn't wait nearly as long this time, as the door opened to let her in about three minutes after they'd arrived.

"Miss Sumeragi," Seth greets respectfully, pulling the rest of the ATX Team from what they were doing. "Have your superiors come to a conclusion?"

"They have, actually," Sumeragi replies with a smile before going into "business mode", as Lockon once jokingly referred to her serious face. "The organization we work for is called Celestial Being. We're a private, armed force with one goal: the elimination of war. The Gundams, which greeted you when you arrived, are our key to achieving that goal."

"Telling us that willingly means you want the ATX Team to join you," Seth states, also going into a serious expression. "Would that be correct?"

"Indeed," Sumeragi admits with a nod. "We can provide you with the funding and resources to repair your ship, maintain your Mobile Suits, and, eventually, fix your FTL drive. We'll also allow you access to our resource outposts so that you can have safe harbor. In exchange for all of this, the ATX Team will sign on with Celestial Being, and act as a reinforcement unit for the Gundam Team. We will assign you missions where you will either help broaden the reach of our interventions, or act in direct support of the Gundams themselves. Furthermore, we will also provide you all with identification that will hold up to any and all inspection so as to avoid suspicion for the duration of your time here. So, do we have a deal?"

She could see Seth's thoughtful expression at that, as well as the glances he was sharing with the rest of the ATX Team. They were silently weighing the pros and cons. Sumeragi turned her gaze to the Meisters. Setsuna was as silent as ever, but she could see Lockon and Allelujah quietly betting on if the ATX Team would take the offer or not. Chuckling softly at their antics, Sumeragi looked back to the ATX Team with a smile. She didn't _need_ to be Celestial Being's Tactical Forecaster to know that they would take the offer. She could already see the other ATX Team members nodding to Seth, who nodded back before turning to Sumeragi again. "We're in," he says at last.

Sumeragi's smile grows. "Excellent. We'll hammer out the minutia of our partnership later," she replies before holding out her hand. "Welcome to Celestial Being."

"Thank you for having us," Seth says back with a smile of his own as he reaches out his own hand, accepting the handshake. "We've got a lot of work to do."

* * *

**Spice: And that's chapter. Now, I would like to take a moment to address a couple of reviews.**

**ELFI: One guest review suggested giving Minerva X-Rounder abilities.**

**Spice: Yeah… ELFI? Play the clip.**

**ELFI: -plays TF2 Heavy "No!"-**

**Spice: The entire **_**premise **_**behind X-Rounders is what made Gundam AGE as bad as its story **_**is**_** in the latter half of the series. Desil is basically what would happen if Ali "Mr. Blood Knight Personified" Al-saachez were a petulant man-child, Zeheart is an inflexible zealot, not even getting **_**laid**_** could make Flit any less of a revenge-obsessed jerk (and calling him a jerk is me being **_**polite**_** about it) and Kira. Kira "Jesus/Aimbot Mc'Beam Spam" Yamato. Is infinitely better. Than KIO! FUCKING! ASUNO! At least Kira knew when to **_**stop**_** being a martial pacifist and aim for the cockpit because there are some people that just need to freaking **_**die**_**. **_**Kio**_** wouldn't be able to pull that kind of trigger even if you put him up against an extreme, omnicidal, nihilistic **_**maniac**_** like Rau le Creuset. So yeah, there is no way in all the nine circles of Hell that I'm **_**ever**_** making Minerva an X-Rounder. They are nothing but a 10x **_**shittier**_** version of even Cyber-Newtypes, and I question the sanity of **_**anyone**_** who makes a Gundam OC with the expressed intention of **_**making**_** them a member of the absolute **_**worst**_** form of Newtype ever conceived by Sunrise.**

**ELFI: 3dots requests that data sheets for the units be added to these Author's Notes to inform readers of the specifications for the ATX Team's Mobile Suits.**

**Spice: This request is one I will be fulfilling starting next chapter. This particular AN's long enough with my X-Rounder rant. As always, constructive criticism is welcomed and highly appreciated. Until next time, this is Spiceracksargent001: signing off!**


	4. Chapter 3: A Simulator Run

**Spice: Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, Spiceracksargent001 here, with another chapter of Gundam Build Divers: Celestial Assault! Gonna be doing a bit of time skipping here, because I am honestly eager to get into the start of Gundam 00 itself.**

**ELFI: The captain only owns any Original Characters and non-canon Mobile Weapons that appear in this story. The Mobile Suit Gundam franchise is the rightful property of Sunrise.**

**Spice: Also, this is the start of including Mobile Suit profiles into the closing AN for chapters. So, without further ado, on with the story!**

* * *

— Nine Months until the beginning of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 —

Seth Browning closes down his terminal on the bridge of the Arkbird with a smile. Joining up with Celestial Being turned out to be a good move after all. With some help from Ian Vashti, the paramilitary group's chief engineer, the Arkbird was finally back up to fully operational status. The first month had been spent ironing out the specifics of the ATX Team's new responsibilities as part of the organization, as well as taking stock of what all would be needed to ensure that Celestial Being would be able to support the Gundams' new backup team long-term. This included disseminating some of the ATX Team's tech, including the manufacturing processes for both warship and Mobile Suit grade Laminated Armor, the Voiture Lumiere Lightwave Propulsion System, and letting Ian take a up-close look at the Minovsky Reactors used by the Arkbird and Jagd Dagger, as well as study the Reginlaze Dragoner's Ahab Reactor to help "figure out how to fix their ship's FTL". A chuckle escaped the male Browning as he recalled the Vashti patriarch's expression when he saw that the ATX Team had their own Haros and Karels when he'd first entered the Arkbird's MS hangar. He was _so_ surprised when he'd "learned" that Haros and Karels were also a thing "where they're from". The following two months had been spent coordinating parts construction and repairs with Ian, who also gave the ATX Team's Mobile Suits a tune up while he was at it, as well as begin drafting up manufacturing plans for replacement parts, since one could never be too careful, on top of his duties of prepping the Gundams themselves for their missions.

Now that the ATX Team was fully back on its feet, the Force's second begins powering down the Arkbird's major systems in preparation for heading into the outpost proper. Sumeragi had extra simulator pods delivered and loaded with the machine data provided of the ATX Team's machines, and she wanted to run some virtual practice drills to ascertain how the ATX Team members fared individually, as a unit, against each other, against the Gundams, and alongside the Gundams.

A beeping on his Diver Gear saw the ATX Team's second-in-command bring the device up to see the smiling face of Ian Vashti. "Everything good on your end?"

Seth smiled back and nodded. "Everything checks out up here, Ian. The Arkbird is back to full combat readiness."

"Great, that frees up a lot of time for making sure everything's good with the Gundams and Ptolemy," Ian sighs in relief as he scratches the back of his head. He soon looks back to Seth. "Oh, yeah, Sumeragi wanted me to tell you to report to the training room ASAP for a simulator run. You're the only ATX Team member she hasn't been able to test individually yet since your focus has been making sure your team's transport is brought back up to fighting shape."

"Right, let Miss Sumeragi know that I just need to grab a couple things, and then I'll be there," Seth replies.

"You got it," Ian replies with a smile and thumbs up before cutting the connection.

Sighing to himself, Seth finishes powering down the Arkbird's main systems to standby mode before making his way down to the hangar to download the Jagd Dagger's technical data for Sumeragi's simulator system.

— Four months later —

Sumeragi watches with a smirk as the ATX Team and the Gundam Meisters square off in the simulator. The match rule this time was a team deathmatch: last team standing won. She'd gotten a pretty good feel for the newcomer's Mobile Suits and their squad tactics over these past four months that she's been drilling them in the simulators. It actually wasn't all that dissimilar to how the Gundam Meisters worked together as a unit, though there were some notable differences due to the differences in both the number and specification of the machines.

Seth and Aria were seldom seen operating apart from each other, similar to how Lockon was almost always watching Setsuna's back. If anything, the fact the former were blood siblings, twins at that, only made their cohesion more solid than any other possible combination in the ATX Team, or even among the Gundam Meisters, and this was reflected in how their machines' actions flowed into one another like the two were psychic as they pressured Tieria both up close and from afar. Flügel also tended to stick close to Minerva in battle, his smaller, nimbler, but equally well-rounded machine making the perfect escort for the Amazon's building-block titan of a Mobile Suit, easily engaging and dispatching targets that were simply too agile for the warrior woman's powerful machine, though the two were currently deadlocked against Setsuna and Lockon, the latter keeping Flügel busy while the former's GN Blade was sword-locked with a Beam Saber from Minerva's machine. Ciel, meanwhile, was often running in-between engagements, popping off a few shots before zipping away to avoid return fire, though right now the Nanbu woman was stuck in a rather heated 1-on-1 dogfight with Allelujah for air superiority.

Their machines also intrigued her. The Jagd Dagger was a brick, plain and simple, but it was a surprisingly fast, very durable, and frighteningly _versatile_ brick, what with Saturn Engine providing its main thrust, dual-layer nature of its Laminated/Trans-Phase Armor, and the sheer _abundance_ of mission packs and other optional equipment the machine could use for any particular situation. Currently it had a pair of three-tube launchers built into a set of optional front skirts, those large weapon pods, which were equipped with something called Claymore Launchers, apparently the bastard love child of a multi-tube missile rack, heavy machine gun, and a shotgun, and the IWSP Striker, a high-mobility flight pack equipped with enough weaponry to take on a fortress. Two large Railguns hung over a pair of smaller ballistic Cannons over the shoulders, while the underside of the Striker Pack held storage racks for a pair of small Anti-Ship Swords. When Sumeragi asked what weapon packs the Arkbird had in stock for the machine, he'd listed them off simply enough: the Speculum Striker and Blaze Wizard for speed, the Blast Silhouette and Buster Striker for firepower, the Sword Silhouette and Slash Wizard for close combat, the Integrated Weapons Striker Pack (or IWSP) for heavy, all-rounder offensive capability, and the Noire Striker for a lighter, more agile all-rounder pack.

The Zudah Busker was frighteningly mobile and well-rounded for a sniper craft. The twin Saturn Engines provided it with speed to easily keep pace with the Jagd Dagger and agility to give Ciel's Mobile suit a run for its money. It didn't sit well with Sumeragi that the Zudah's engine limiters apparently weren't strong enough to handle the thermal load of a single Saturn Engine going full-burn, and she made a point to telling Ian to look into fixing that as soon as possible, but the twin-engine setup seemed to be working more than well enough for Ciel to keep the overheating issue under control, especially when each had their own independent cooling systems in those engine pods. The Anti-Ship rifle was a frighteningly powerful sniper weapon, as evidenced by how it just made Tieria recoil back from just the bullet striking the Virtue's GN Field, and when the weapon itself was infeasible, the Large Beam Machine Gun was still a potently versatile sniping weapon, what with its ability to fire in either a damaging triple-shot burst or a single, penetrating beam. It was no slouch in melee either. She doubted Ciel would have the shield on the left shoulder outfitted as it was, otherwise. The Beam Sabers weren't anything too special to Celestial Being, _all_ of the Gundams had their own, after all, but the ramming spike would be a nasty surprise to anyone stupid enough to not get out of the way of a charge, and the Heat Wire concealed within the shield itself had an even more insidious one to anybody who though it was just a humble Rocket Anchor thanks to its electric shock function.

The Dorado Titan was a powerhouse, plain and simple. It easily dwarfed any other Mobile Weapon that Celestial Being had within its arsenal, with the possible exception of the incomplete GN Arms, and it had the firepower and durability to back that up. The Weapon Cargo Pods connected to the shoulder armor were of a similar make to the housing for the Jagd Dagger's Claymore Launchers, but were loaded with missiles, while the giant Mobile Suit arms connected to the pods were laden with six Beam Cannons, one in each finger with the sixth in the forearm armor, and some sort of energy shielding system called a Positron Deflector. Name aside, the shielding system was definitely strong, as evidenced by how it tanked a blast from Virtue like it was nothing when the ATX Team first arrived. Said arms could also detach at the elbows and operate as remote weapons using something called the Disconnected Rapid Armament Group Overlook Operation Network, or DRAGOON, System. Again, naming conventions aside, this system gave the Titan omni-directional attack ability, though, to her amusement, Minerva typically kept the system in reserve until she felt like _punching_ someone from halfway across the battlefield. The support unit that connected the Dorado to its Weapon Cargo Pods also had a pair of drive arm-type units which connected to a pair of Smoothbore Guns, similar in setup to a Tieren's, but larger, arguably more streamlined in design, and also higher caliber on both barrels, 300mm for the main cannon and 60mm for the co-axial Machine Gun. She was also right to be wary of the unit's large sword when the ATX Team had first deployed their MS when they'd arrived. Apparently called the Type-0 Ship-Cleaving Sword (_subtle_), the weapon was a massive, single-edged Heat Blade, meaning that it can be superheated to enhance its anti-armor capabilities, and was equipped with Vernier engine banks along the back of the blade to up the speed and power of its swings.

Of course, this didn't mean that the core Dorado unit was helpless without its Titan gear. Far from it, in fact. The draconic Mobile Suit was actually a highly agile and well-rounded combatant in its own right. The dual-thumbed hands of the machine were equipped with barrels in the palm that doubled as both Beam Vulcans _and_ Beam Sabers. Again, nothing too special, though the interchangeable beam projection modes did intrigue her, and she made a note to have Ian go over the specs for those as a potential upgrade plan for Exia's GN Sword. It had a pair of shield units that could equip either a triple-Beam Vulcan or 3-tube Missile Launcher system, two additional Beam Vulcans in the head, these ones of a similar make to the shield Vulcans, which lacked the Beam Saber function, a Diffusion Beam Cannon in the torso for use against more heavily armored targets, and the long, flexible tail binder housed a Beam Rifle for precision shooting. Add in the Titan gear, and you have a Mobile Suit with an answer for pretty much everything you can possibly throw its way.

A similar case existed for the Reginlaze Dragoner, though how _its_ versatility was executed is more similar to that of the Jagd Dagger. If the Jagd Dagger could be considered decent in the modularity category, then the Reginlaze was in a league of its own. Pretty much _everything_ about the unit's equipment, from its armor plating to its weapons and equipment, can be swapped out on a per-need basis depending on the mission profile. It had an armor set, weapon, or piece of equipment for quite literally every occasion (she'd gotten an inventory of the thing's equipment repertoire as part of the initial data exchange between the Ptolemy Crew and the ATX Team, and it _still_ made her head spin. How do they keep _track_ of it all?). It was using its most commonly used configuration for this match. Much of its exterior armor was taken up by what the newcomers referred to as the Fixed Flight Unit. This armor module, which covered quite a bit of the Reginlaze, was an all-in-one armor system that included a flight system that worked by using highly concentrated electromagnetic fields to counteract the effects of gravity, similar enough in principle to how the Linear Rifles of the Flags allow the Union's mainstay Mobile Suit to go supersonic while in fighter mode for Sumeragi to grasp the concept, Beam Cannons on the shoulders, small shield units on the arms with Beam Guns that doubled as Beam Sabers, missile banks loaded with anti-Mobile Suit heavy missiles, and four shell-firing Vulcans in the dragon head-like "turret" behind the Reginlaze's own head. Its handheld weapon reminded Sumeragi of a drill… a drill that was the head of a spear that _also_ incorporated a variable-output Linear Rifle, but a drill nonetheless. The armor would be the big thing the Meisters would have to work around, though. From the info provided by the ATX Team, Nanolaminate Armor is a multi-layered metallic paint purpose-treated with special nanomachines to dampen and diffuse incoming beam fire, making it a potent defense against the primary ranged weapons of Celestial Being's Gundams in a shootout, and the nature of the treatment also makes it resilient against projectiles like Dynames' GN Missiles, making Close Quarters Combat weaponry its main weakness. Getting around such an absurd defense would be an exercise in patience, teamwork, and observation for the Gundam Meisters, with Exia being the main crux of any plan to take that unit out of the fight thanks to its physical GN Blade.

Last, but not least, Ciel's machine, the Aries Tempête. It was a rather radical departure from the rest of the ATX team's machines. Relatively thin armor, a light, agile, yet sturdy airframe, and multiple warship-grade engines, meant that the machine was a speed demon, even amongst the likes of Seth's Jagd Dagger and his sister's Zudah Busker. Add in Ciel's piloting skills, and you had a machine that combined speed and agility into the _perfect_ air superiority suit. It also helped that it was fitted with the right tools for such a job, too. The Machine Cannons, while mainly point-defense, were devastating to even Mobile Suit armor at close range, and were reliable and accurate to boot since they were Revolver Cannons, the Tail Unit and wing hardpoints offered a plethora of missile, bomb, and gun (in the case of the latter) based ordinance for whatever was needed, and the Beam Rifle provided a nice, general purpose anti-Mobile Suit weapon to round it out. The Anti-Beam Coating also meant that it could shrug off Allelujah's return fire from his GN Submachine Gun with little trouble, though repeated hits _would_ wear down its protection, meaning that Ciel's best defense is not getting hit in the first place. When Sumeragi had gotten the list of hardpoint options for the Aries, she'd assumed it would just be missiles, but no. While most of the options were indeed a variety of missile weapons, there were also rocket pods, bomb racks, heavy machine gun pods, drop tanks, and also something called a "Irradiation Tactical Laser System" available for the hardpoints. Currently, she was packing a pair of 3-slot missile racks on her hardpoints, each one packing advanced, high agility air-to-air missiles.

Sumeragi was intrigued to see which group would win. Her money was on the Gundam Meisters, personally, but she wasn't about to write off the ATX Team just yet. As was being demonstrated before her very eyes, they had the right combination of numbers, sufficiently advanced Mobile Suits, and pilot coordination needed to make this sim match anyone's game.

— within the simulator —

Tieria grit his teeth as Virtue was rocked by another hit from Aria's Anti-Ship Rifle. The shell had only impacted the GN Field, thankfully, but the shots had enough mass and muzzle velocity that, even with Virtue's formidable defense, he was _still_ feeling the impacts of each shell, a fact that was _not_ helped by her brother's machine keeping him pinned in close combat and unable to use his heavy weaponry to return fire. "I could end these two with one shot if only I could just get an opening…" the violet-haired Gundam Meister muttered. Confident as he was with Virtue's capabilities, even _he_ had to admit that the heavy weaponry would serve him little if all he could do was turtle in the face of the unstoppable force that was the Jagd Dagger constantly in his face and the alarmingly agile sniper that was the Zudah Busker flitting about and shooting at every opening its partner MS made for it.

Lockon hummed as he continued to take pot shots at the Reginlaze Dragoner. He was already well aware of how annoying its armor was to deal with for a beam weapon like his sniper rifle, but the shots hitting the armor still kept the machine from flanking Exia as Setsuna tied up the, literal, biggest threat on the field, which was all Lockon could ask for at the moment. "That armor really is something else," he admits. "Unfortunately for you, however, no defense is perfect. You'll reveal a gap in that armor of yours sooner or later, and when you do, no amount of absurd defense will be able to save you…"

Setsuna hums as well as he continues to cross swords with Minerva's Dorado Titan. The colossal Mobile Suit truly was formidable, and the fact the core unit's arms weren't obstructed by the larger ones meant that, while he was right to get up in the machine's face where it couldn't use its larger weapons effectively, he still had to contend with quite the versatile opponent once he was in blade range. Noticing the building glow in the chest of the Dorado, Setsuna knew it was about to fire a powerful beam weapon, and so diverted the machine's aim with a spin kick to the torso, which also, thankfully, broke the blade lock and allowed Setsuna to quickly slip under the Dorado's guard and slice off its tail rifle before the large machine whirled around and the clash of blades resumed once more.

Allelujah, meanwhile, was… surprisingly having fun. Ciel's Aries Tempête was fast and agile, no doubt about it. Prior to the ATX team's arrival, none of the other Gundam Meisters could keep pace with his Kyrios for extended periods of time. The speed and mobility for such a contest simply wasn't in the specs of any of the other Gundams. Oh, sure, _none_ of them were lacking in the mobility department thanks to the capabilities of their GN Drives, but even Exia, which had the most exposed power cables, and thus _the_ highest agility, of all four Gundams, would struggle to keep up once Allelujah got into the tempo of securing air superiority. For a newcomer to show up and give him such a high-octane dogfight was a surprising and, honestly speaking, rather refreshing change of pace from the norm.

Seth and Aria continued their double-team of Virtue, the Jagd Dagger forcing the heavy-hitter of Celestial Being's Gundam Team to keep behind the protective shell of its GN Field as it was hit time and again with Beam Saber swipes from the modular Mobile Suit and sniper shots from the Zudah Busker as it took advantage of every opening made. "That GN Field won't last forever," Seth observes, noting how the density of GN Particles that composed the field was getting thinner with each hit, despite Virtue's best efforts to keep the field up with a constant stream of fresh particles from its GN Field rectifiers.

"Then we just have to keep up the pressure," Aria replies, even as she switches to the Large Beam Machine Gun and fires off a focused shot.

"Agreed," Seth replies, even as he slams his Dagger's Heat Horn into the field. "Once it goes down, I'll nail him with the Claymores. You good for the follow up?"

"Always, bro!"

Alexander clicked his tongue in slight annoyance as he narrowly evaded a shot from Dynames. The sniper-type Gundam was quite the troubling opponent for the ATX Team's all-rounder to fight since the only weapons of his with the range to compete were his Beam Cannons and his Speargun, of which only the former had the firepower to match and exceed the GN Sniper Rifle while the latter had the precision, mobility, and (potential) rate of fire to keep up in a sniper duel. The Nano-Laminate Armor and Fixed Flight Unit's raw speed and mobility were the only things keeping him alive since Lockon was _scarily_ accurate.

"Then again," the Reginlaze pilot mutters to himself, "this is the man who can snipe satellites from the ground. It only makes sense that his aim is just that good."

"Woo!" Ciel whoops over an open channel as she pitches the Aries Tempête into a decelerating barrel roll to get behind Kyrios and fires off a burst of Machine Cannon fire along with a couple shots from the Beam Rifle. Kyrios pulls into a high-G turn to evade the barrage, but a beam shot still manages to clip one of its wings, causing Allelujah to reflexively shift the Gundam to Mobile Suit mode to regain its balance while throwing a burst of fire her way to buy time to shift back into Fighter Mode and resume the ever-shifting game of cat and mouse that was their dogfight.

Minerva grunts as she and Setsuna continue their clash of blades. The young man was definitely making the most of Exia's capabilities, considering he's already disarmed her of the Dorado's tail Beam Rifle. Deciding a bit more mobility was needed, Minerva hit the commands to purge most of the Titan Gear. With a faint whirring of the simulator pod as it registers the command, Minerva's load was lightened considerably as the entire shoulder assembly for the Titan Gear and the Queen Mansa legs are purged. With the significant boost to the machine's thrust to weight ratio, Minerva puts the pedal to the metal, now pushing Exia back a little as the weights are made roughly equivalent again. "You are a fine opponent, but you are still no match!" Minerva declares as she kicks Exia back and blasts away momentarily, retrieving the Type-0 Ship Cleaving Sword. Wrapping both hands around the handle, the swordswoman brought the giant weapon up in a high guard position, blade lighting up with thermal energy as she activates the heat blade function. "Because! There is NOTHING! That my colossal blade CANNOT CUT!"

Driving his Heat Horn into Virtue's GN Field once more, Seth finally gained purchase as he felt the spherical barrier give way, allowing the Jagd Dagger in bit by bit as GN Particles scorched themselves against the superheated, metal horn adorning the machine's head. Glancing over at his side screen, his sister nodded at the look he gave her, the Sniper repositioning for their next move.

"I won't let you!" Tieria shouts in defiance as he deploys Virtue's GN Cannons. As the heavy weapons come up, Tieria deactivates the GN Field, expecting the fellow heavyweight to overextend from the sudden lack of resistance. What he got instead was a nasty surprise. The Jagd Dagger suddenly veered off to the side, leaving Tieria stunned and unprepared to counter a high-caliber, high-velocity shell from the Zudah Busker's Anti-Ship Linear Sniper Rifle that struck right between the barrels of one of the Cannon units and exploded inwards, the shaped charge round breaching the GN Composite Armor-reinforced E-Carbon and damaging the delicate internals allowing the use of both the left cannon _and_ the GN Field. "Agh! Damn it! They planned this! Baited into dropping my guard for a surprise attack, how could I be so foolish?!"

"Your mistake for trying to take me and my sister by yourself, really," Seth mutters to himself as he watches Virtue regain its balance from the destruction of one of its secondary weapons.

"Tieria!" Allelujah calls out, his attention drawn momentarily from his dogfight to the first major damage the Meisters have taken so far in this battle. The mistake cost him, however, as he fails to register the hostile weapons lock in time to evade a pinpoint shot from Ciel's Beam Rifle, destroying his GN Submachine Gun. "Aw, crap!"

"No looking away from your dance partner~!" Ciel chastises playfully over the comm. "What are you gonna do now that you have no rifle?"

"Don't count me out just yet!" Allelujah retorts defiantly as he guns his machine's engines and yanks back the control stick, going into a sharp, vertical loop and getting behind Ciel once more. "Kyrios!"

As if responding to Allelujah's call, Kyrios put on one last, explosive burst of speed as it half-shifted, becoming a Mobile Suit from the waist up while keeping its legs transformed, and drew one of its GN Beam Sabers, bringing it down once he was in range. Unfortunately, it seemed his opponent was already aware of his plan, as the Aries Tempête's Tail Unit ejected as Ciel put the pedal to the metal, pulling away as Allelujah's Beam Saber carved into the ejectable container, setting off the remaining warheads contained within. While Allelujah tried to recover from the shockwave and smokescreen, he failed to react to the target lock alert until it was too late. There was a flash of yellow; then his screen went to static as the simulated Gundam took a Beam Rifle shot straight to the cockpit and was destroyed, removing him from the battle. Sighing, Allelujah leaned back in his seat, lamenting his defeat for a moment before giving a smirk. He had a feeling that having the ATX Team along for the ride would turn out a-okay.

— outside of the simulator —

"Kyrios has just been eliminated. Aries Tempête is now moving to assist the Reginlaze Dragoner," Feldt reports as Sumeragi watches on the main screen.

"He put up a good fight, though," Sumeragi comments as she watches Allelujah exit the simulator pod to join her in the observation room. "How goes it with the others?"

"Virtue is still being locked down by the Speculum Jagd Dagger and Zudah Busker," Christina Sierra, the second of the Ptolemy's bridge bunnies, chimes in, "Tieria got tricked into lowing his guard, and is on the backfoot now that he's lost his GN Field. Dynames is already switching weapons and tactics now that the Aries Tempête is moving in to assist the Reginlaze Dragoner. Exia is still deadlocked with the Dorado Titan."

"Momentum's in the ATX Team's court now," Lasse Aeon, one of the Ptolemy's helmsmen, comments. "If the Meisters are to turn this around now that Allelujah's out, they'll need to get into a solid formation and try to break the ATX Team's stride."

"Indeed, though I'm still worried that Tieria will be intractable and refuse to work in formation with Setsuna, given what happened when the new guys arrived," Sumeragi muses.

"Speculum Jagd Dagger is pulling back and the Zudah Busker is moving forward! Possibility of unison attack maneuvers against Virtue is high!" Feldt calls out.

"Any chances for Tieria to pull back and break up their formation with the GN Bazooka?" Sumeragi asks.

"Negative, Virtue is attempting to pursue the Jagd Dagger with just its Beam Sabers!" Feldt replies. "Without GN Field operability, the chance of Virtue being taken out by a tandem assault from the Jagd Dagger and Zudah Busker is 85%!"

Sumeragi shakes her head with a sigh. "Idiot. Well, live and learn, as they say," the tactical forecaster remarks as she turns her attention to the sight of the Jagd Dagger warding off Virtue with a burst from its Beam Spot Guns before rendezvousing with the Zudah Busker.

The combination attack was actually quite a sight to watch. First the two machines charged in, laying down suppressing fire with the Jagd Dagger's Beam Spot Guns and the Zudah Busker's Large Beam Machine Gun, keeping Tieria from setting up a counterattack. Once they were sufficiently close enough, the Zudah Busker peeled off and started circling while the Jagd Dagger drew the Anti-Ship Swords stored on the IWSP pack and started into a melee combo, ending with a double-bladed strike that sent Virtue flying away and into the Zudah Busker's range, where upon it pierced the hapless Gundam's remaining GN Cannon with the ramming spikes on the shield before sending Virtue flying with a couple blasts from the Linear Anti-Ship Rifle. While this was happening, the Jagd Dagger went for altitude before unleashing a rain of fire and steel from the Claymore Launchers, the ball bearing rounds pelting Virtue's battered hull and entering gaps in the armor rent open by previous punishment, causing untold internal damage, before diving and splitting the head clean open with the Heat Horn. Withdrawing the horn, the Jagd Dagger slammed its fist into Virtue's midsection just as the Zudah Busker jammed the barrel of the Linear Anti-Ship Rifle into Virtue's back, the heavy artillery gun opening up as fast as Aria could pull the trigger while the Beam Spot Gun's tonfa function ignited a Beam Blade right into Virtue's mid-section and melting through the GN Composite reinforced E-Carbon armor until the tip of the blade erupted from the nape of Virtue's neck. As if to add insult to injury, the Jagd Dagger then fired the IWSP's Rail Cannons into Virtue's shoulders, allowing the recoil to push off from the thoroughly wrecked Gundam while Aria pushed the Saturn Engines to jet away before the simulated Gundam erupted into fire and glittering GN Particles before dissolving into data fragments as Tieria was removed from the simulation.

— within the simulation —

"Virtue eliminated! Virtue eliminated!" Orange Haro calls out in alarm while Lockon watches dispassionately.

"You got too worked up, Tieria," Lockon comments dryly as he continues to keep Alexander at bay with the GN Sniper Rifle while warding off Ciel's passes with a GN Beam Pistol, Haro handling evasive maneuvers. Seeing as the momentum of the fight was now almost definitively in their opponent's court, Lockon got on the comm with Exia. "Setsuna, we need to link up! Allelujah and Tieria are out, so it's just us against all five of them! If we continue to try handling things as we did at the start of this, we'll just get isolated and picked off!"

"Roger, disengaging now," Setsuna responds simply, delivering a kick to stun the Dorado Titan before peeling off and moving to link back up with Lockon, who laid down suppressing fire to keep Flügel from intercepting. As luck would have it for the two remaining Gundam Meisters, Setsuna was then intercepted by Ciel, who, despite scoring a beam rifle shot that deprived Exia of its shield, was eliminated by a rather skillful throw of a Beam Dagger straight to the cockpit.

"Nice shot, Setsuna!" Lockon cheers. "That evened the odds a little, but we're gonna need a solid strategy to deal with the other four."

"Agreed," Setsuna replies. "Any ideas?"

Lockon hums, trying to come up with a solid strategy.

Seth and Aria, meanwhile, can't help but raise an eyebrow at how quickly Ciel had been eliminated. "Huh, guess Setsuna's already gotten good at throwing those things," Seth comments, earning a nod from his twin sister.

"Well, that killed our momentum a little," Alexander muses as the four remaining members of the ATX Team link up as well. "What now, boss?"

"No doubt whatever strategy they come up with will involve Setsuna and the Exia up front with Dynames providing fire support," Minerva replies. "Seth, you are our linebreaker. Scatter those two however you wish, we will pick them off one at a time from there."

"Roger that, boss," Seth replies as he readies the Jagd Dagger. Pumping power into the Saturn Engine and IWSP boosters, he let the thrusters cook a little before rocketing forward in an explosive burst of forward thrust, Heat Horn glowing and Beam Tonfa active.

And that was when all hell broke loose within the simulator.

— Observation room —

Sumeragi, Feldt, Christina, Lasse, Allelujah, Tieria, and Ciel all watch the Charlie Foxtrot that ensued from Seth's line breaking maneuver. Rather surprisingly, he rocked Exia back as Setsuna struggled a moment to fend off the high-speed brick of a Mobile Suit before eventually killing the momentum of the charge, deadlocking the two before delivering a high kick to knock the Jagd Dagger back, during which time, the ATX Team had closed into close quarters while Lockon tried to ward them off with sniper fire. Despite seizing the initiative and outnumbering them two to one, the ATX Team had a surprisingly difficult challenge against Lockon and Setsuna once they found their footing. After a tense sniper duel, Lockon eliminated Aria with a well-placed beam shot to the Zudah Busker's cockpit, and Setsuna was quick to dispatch Flügel, the Nanolaminate Armor of the Reginlaze Dragoner failing to absorb the GN Particle-enhanced weight and cutting capacity of the Exia's physical GN Sword. In turn, however, this left Lockon wide open for the Jagd Dagger, Seth using the powerhouse Mobile Suit's high speed and top-heavy agility to get around behind it, weathering the Dynames' return fire almost as well as the Reginlaze had, before spearing the Gundam from behind with a Beam Tonfa. The resulting two on one was definitely stacked against Setsuna, but the young Gundam Meister soon evened the odds by eliminating the Jagd Dagger, which hadn't escaped Lockon's beam fire unscathed like the Reginlaze had, by chopping off its arms with Exia's Beam Sabers before spearing it in the cockpit. In exchange, however, the Jagd Dagger's Heat Horn had wrecked Exia's head, depriving Setsuna of his main camera.

The resulting duel between the armor-purged Dorado Titan and Exia was as tense as it was climactic. Discarding the Type-0 Ship Cleaving Sword for extra mobility, the Dorado ignited both palm Beam Sabers while Setsuna kept the GN Beam Sabers in hand as both Mobile Suits charged in and clashed. Breaking off to avoid a point-blank Diffusion Beam Cannon blast, Setsuna sheathed one of the Beam Sabers and deployed the GN Sword in Rifle Mode as he shifted the remaining Beam Saber to a reverse grip to open up the ability to use both the rifle and one of his wrist-mounted GN Vulcans. In turn, Minerva switched one of the Dorado's palm Beam Sabers to Vulcan mode as the two opponents trade beam fire while dodging and weaving around each other's ranged attacks before charging back into melee. And so, the tense final duel of the team deathmatch continued for a solid minute before something happened to turn the tides. As the two combatants closed into melee once more, Minerva veered off to the side to avoid a blade clash at the last second, using a Beam Vulcan to wreck Exia's GN Sword, as well as the arm it was attached to, while Setsuna was overextended. As Setsuna recovered his bearings, the two pilots went in for the decisive exchange. With a pair of matching thrusts, _both_ machines had been run through at the torso After a moment, the Exia's Beam Saber fizzled out of existence as the Gundam went limp, its torso speared clean through while the Dorado Titan drifted away, badly damaged, but still very much alive as it took hold of the Type-0 Ship Cleaving Sword with its sole remaining functional hand and raised the colossal blade in victory. Everyone in the observation room at that point – Seth had joined them soon after being eliminated – save for Tieria and Sumeragi began clapping as the ATX Team had won by the slimmest of margins.

— Simulator room —

Setsuna sighs as he steps out of his simulator pod, helmet held at his side as Minerva steps out of hers as well. The match had gone down to the wire, but, in the end, he just wasn't good enough to beat the ATX Team's leader, it seemed. Speaking of, the amazon was holding out her hand. Looking at it for a moment, the Gundam Meister then looked up at the woman's face in confusion. "What's this?"

"That was an outstanding battle. You and your comrades fought well," Minerva congratulates. "In the end, the result of the battle was a matter of numbers, and even then, it was a close bout. With our strengths combined, I am certain that there is little we cannot overcome."

Setsuna looked at the outstretched hand for a full thirty seconds as he considered her words. After a bit, the young Gundam Meister reached out with his own hand. Fingers clasped, and the two shook their hands, sealing a comradery of the ATX Team and the Ptolemaios Team.

The sound of a door opening drew their attention as the Ptolemaios bridge crew, the other Meisters, and the rest of the ATX Team enter the sim room as well. Tieria had an oddly subdued, thoughtful look on his face, Allelujah and Lockon smiled at Setsuna, and the ATX Team regrouped with Minerva and shared some high-fives and fist-bumps in celebration of their victory.

"Not bad at all, everyone," Sumeragi calls out, breaking up the ATX Team's mini-celebration and gaining everyone's attention. "That test battle gave me some good data on how everyone would mesh together if or when we have to do a joint intervention."

The tactical forecaster's gaze swept over the Gundam Meisters and their new combat support team. "Now, we still have a lot of work to do before we're ready to appear on the world stage for real. The Ptolemaios should be completed soon. Once it's ready and safely transfered here, I'd like to run some formation drills in tandem with the Arkbird," Sumeragi continues before looking to the ATX Team. "Once we're ready to commence our armed interventions, I'd like to keep your ship and machines in our back pocket as much as possible in case of emergency. That being said, I couldn't help but notice the presence of some covert ops gear available for a couple of your machines, particularly the Jagd Dagger and Reginlaze Dragoner. Seth, Alexander, can we count on the two of you to provide covert field support for the Gundams when things start getting a little too hot?"

Seth and Flügel look to each other a moment before nodding to the woman. "You can count on us," the male Browning twin replies.

"Where will you want the rest of us and the Arkbird?" the female Browning twin asks.

"Seeing as the Ptolemaios is defenseless without the Gundams until we can get the Assault Containers ready for roll out," Sumeragi begins, "I'd like to keep the Arkbird close to Ptolemy as a defensive escort until we have need to launch the full ATX Team. Is this agreeable with you?"

Minerva nods. "We have no objections," she replies simply, speaking for rest of the ATX Team.

Sumeragi nods, glad an accord was reached so easily. "Alright then. We'll start our operations in about five months. Let's use that time to make sure everything's fully tuned and we're all ready to do this. Until then, dismissed!"

* * *

**Spice: And that's chapter! Next chapter, we ****_finally_**** get to the start of 00 canon, which means I need to work out my game plan for Season 1. I seriously need to get into a better work ethic for these stories.**

**ELFI: I'm sure you'll figure something out on both fronts, Captain.**

**Spice: Thanks for the support, ELFI. Now, since I ****_did_**** promise to do technical readouts for the full ATX Team roster starting with this chapter, let's kick things off with their Force Nest: the Arkbird. As always, constructive criticism is welcomed and highly appreciated. Until next time, this is Spiceracksargent001: signing off!**

**Technical Specifications:**

**Ship Classification: Force Nest/Custom Trans-atmospheric Mobile Assault Cruiser**

**Official Name: Arkbird**

**Base Height: 120m**

**Base Length: 255m**

**Overall Width: 223m**

**Base Weight: 42500t**

**Power Plant: Minovsky-Ionesco Fusion Reactor**

**Armor: Laminated Armor**

**General Information:**

**Manufacturer: GBN**

**Design Base: Zanzibar II-class**

· **Operator: ATX Team  
Celestial Being**

· **Known Captain(s): Minerva Zonvolt**

· **Known Crew: Seth Browning  
Aria Browning  
Alexander Flügel  
Ciel Nanbu  
Haros (many)  
Karels (many)**

· **Carried Machines: ****ovm-t Dorado Titan  
RGM/GAT-01J1 Jagd Dagger  
EMS-10B Zudah Busker  
EB-08D Reginlaze Dragoner  
OZ-07Tp Aries Tempête**

**Equipment:**

**Voiture Lumiere Lightwave Propulsion System  
A custom add-on to the Arkbird's engine systems, it is of a similar type to the one used by the Strike Freedom and Destiny Gundams, albeit scaled up for warship use. In addition to providing extra forward thrust, it also takes over the role of the maneuvering thrusters on the base Zanzibar II, greatly enhancing the Arkbird's overall fuel economy.**

**Armaments:**

**M10 "Isolde" 42cm Triple Cannon  
The standard projectile cannon of the Minerva from SEED Destiny. This triple-barrel cannon features a good balance between rate-of-fire and heavy firepower. It replaces the top-mounted main gun turret of the base Zanzibar II, and can be retracted as needed to facilitate atmospheric escape and re-entry. Its only noteworthy modification is waterproofing to allow reliable usage in submarine warfare.**

**4x 2-barrel Modified Beam Gun  
The secondary gun turrets of the base Zanzibar II, modified with Energy Extenders. This enhancement improves their overall firepower without compromising their flexibility as secondary guns.**

**2x "Valiant Mk.8" 110cm Linear Cannon  
The standard projectile cannons of the iconic Archangle-class Assault Carriers from Gundam SEED. They replace the bottom-mounted main gun turret of the base Zanzibar II, and can be retracted as needed to facilitate atmospheric escape and re-entry. Unlike the top-mounted "Isolde", they are naturally capable of usage underwater.**

**2x J Missile Launcher  
The missile launchers of the base Zanzibar II. They fire large missiles capable of sinking cruiser-class vessels in a single hit.**

**6x 4-tube Missile Launcher/Anti-Beam Dispersal Shell Launcher  
4-tube missile launchers originally featured on the Diva from Gundam AGE. Three banks of these launchers are mounted on each side of the Arkbird. These multi-purpose missile tubes are capable of firing both standard missiles and Anti-Beam Dispersal Shells, munitions that detonate some distance away from the ship and release a substance that disperses beam weapons fire.**

**2x 3-tube Missile Launcher/Anti-Beam Dispersal Shell Launcher  
3-tube missile launchers originally featured on the Diva from Gundam AGE. Two banks of these launchers are mounted atop the Arkbird. These multi-purpose missile tubes are capable of firing both standard missiles and Anti-Beam Dispersal Shells, munitions that detonate some distance away from the ship and release a substance that disperses beam weapons fire.**

**Ramming Blade  
The ramming blade of the Bisidian Pirates' flagship, Baronche, adapted to the Zanzibar II-class hull of the Arkbird. Positioned between the two Valiants, it can split a battleship in two and is enhanced with Phase-Shift Armor technology for enhanced cutting power. This can only be used when the ship is ramming another ship, however, and is usually regarded as a weapon of last resort.**

**8x 120mm Machine Gun  
The anti-air screen of the base Zanzibar II. They have a high rate-of-fire, but are of negligible effectiveness against heavy armor, relegating them more towards intercepting incoming missiles and lightly-armored Mobile Suits like the Union Flag. They are equipped with proximity fuse-detonated flak shells for enhanced effectiveness in this role.**

**6x Anti-Air Laser Gun  
Low-power optical energy weapons added to enhance the Arkbird's anti-air screen. Compared to the 120mm Machine Guns, these weapons have a slightly reduced rate-of-fire, but are perfectly capable of damaging even a heavily armored Mobile Suit like the Tieren Space Type.**


	5. Chapter 4: It Has Begun

**Spice: Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, Spiceracksargent001 here, with Chapter 4 of Gundam Build Divers: Celestial Assault! **_**Now**_** we get into the meat and potatoes of this story, the beginning to Mobile Suit Gundam 00!**

**ELFI: The Captain only owns his own characters and their Mobile Suits. Mobile Suit Gundam as a franchise is the legal property of Sunrise and Bandai-Namco.**

**Spice: Gonna be a little hands-off with the ATX Team for now, though. This **_**is**_** 00 S1E1, after all. We got to let the Gundams have their time in the limelight! This will also mark the appearance the first of the "rival" OCs for the ATX Team to square off against. You'll know 'em when you see 'em. With all of that semantic stuff out of the way, on to the story!**

* * *

— AEU Orbital Elevator, Military Test Facility —

It was a bright, clear day at the military testing grounds located at the construction site of the AEU's Orbital Elevator. The unfinished superstructure stood tall in the distance, but that was not the focus of what was occurring today. On the test grounds itself, automated turrets with target boards or balloons attached to them waited, each armed with old Rotary Cannons ready to spin up at a moment's notice. The cameras attached to one of the turrets extended slightly as their target came into view, flying up from behind some cover. The machine itself was a somewhat slender thing: thin arms and legs with a somewhat bulkier torso separated from the waist by the drum cockpit connecting the top and bottom halves of the Mobile Suit. Three antenna, the top-mounted one much wider than the other two, almost like a helmet crest of sorts, were attached to the machine's head. Four plasma jets with maneuvering wings, two on the shoulders and two on its hips, provided the machine with its flight capability.

Connected to the left elbow was a long, tonfa-like attachment. This device, the Defense Rod, was the standard defensive armament of both Advanced European Union and Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations Mobile Suits. Kept as lightweight as possible to allow their MS to defend themselves without hindering flight performance, the Defense Rod protected the MS by using the same deflection principle as spinning a quarterstaff to ward off incoming attacks. New models of Defense Rod, like the one attached to the MS performing the test, could even channel plasma along the length of the rod itself to enhance its defensive capabilities. Also mounted on the machine were a basic, 20mm machine gun for dogfighting and point-defense to the left of the main cockpit hatch, and an array of weapon racks in the forearms and shins of the suit. The shin weapon racks are mainly equipped with a pair of missiles, but can support other long-range weaponry or tactical equipment like extra fuel tanks for extended operations. The forearm racks, meanwhile, are purely for offensive capabilities, and can carry either a new model Sonic Blade, a vibro-dagger capable of projecting a Plasma Sword for extra reach in close-quarters combat, or additional ranged armament in the form of small explosive devices, like grenades or rockets. In its right hand, the machine held its main weapon, a Linear Rifle that used electromagnetic rails to project a magnetic acceleration field that allowed it to launch ferromagnetic rounds at high speeds.

With a low, persistent "whirr", the automated turrets unleash a hail of bullets at the Mobile Suit, which almost lazily dodges out of the way of each turret's line of fire before blasting the targets atop them with shots from the Linear Rifle. The machine then touches down at an intersection, and looks to see more turrets come online to its left and open fire. The machine responds by bringing up its Defense Rod, the rotating defensive pylon easily deflecting the shots before the machine charges between the lines of fire, using one of the test structures to springboard into the air behind the turrets before taking down their targets as well with the Linear Rifle in an acrobatic turn.

Meanwhile, in the stands, AEU officials and military personnel alike watch the display in awe. They aren't the only power bloc watching the demonstration, though. Sitting in an alley seat, a technical advisor from the Union watches on in amusement. "So, this is the Enact," the technical advisor muses out loud to himself, "the first AEU Mobile Suit that runs on solar energy."

"Development of the AEU's orbital elevator is definitely lagging behind," a new voice quips as two figures walk over, drawing the technical advisor's attention. Both were wearing the standard Union military uniform, albeit much of it covered by dark blue coats to hide their affiliation. The one who spoke first was male and stood about 5'9" with blonde hair and green eyes.

"Very true," his companion, a young woman who was only about an inch shorter with bright, green eyes and loose, neck-length hair dyed a deep, forest green, comments as she watches the demonstration with an amused smile. "I suppose they're trying to compensate by having their new Mobile Suit use the best tech available."

"Well, well," the technical advisor interjects. "Should the ace of MSWAD and the Merrygate really be showing their faces here?"

"Of course, we shouldn't be here," the "ace of MSWAD" returns with a smile as he and the "Merrygate" walk into the row of seats and sat down in the two empty seats to the technical advisor's left.

The tech advisor looks to his new companions for a moment before looking back to the demonstration as the Enact performs some flips and spins to show off its maneuverability before descending to land. "Talk about the AEU having a lot of nerve, though," he comments. "Unveiling their brand-new Mobile Suit at the same time as the Human Reform League's tenth anniversary ceremony?"

"So, what do you make of this machine?" the male Union ace asks as he looks at the Enact as well.

"To be perfectly honest, it's just a cheap copy of our Flag model," the technical advisor quips with a bemused expression. "The exterior's the only thing that's original."

"Hey, you!" A belligerent male voice angrily interjects into the Union personnel's conversation as he opens the cockpit and steps on the lip of his seat. "I can hear you! What did you just say!? Well?! Come on!"

"Well, you have to give the techies credit for a top-notch audio system," Merrygate comments in amusement, earning a snicker from her fellow ace and a chuckle from the tech advisor.

"I guess so," said advisor admits amidst his chuckles.

Little did any of them know what today would also mark the start of a war unlike any waged before…

— Orbital Elevator airspace, high altitude —

High above the clouds, a certain blue and white Gundam was calmly descending to the ground at a controlled, but rapid pace, fully decked out with its GN Sword, Beam Sabers, and Beam Daggers, its trajectory putting it to land right in the middle of the Enact's unveiling. "Two-four-zero-zero-eight-two, Exia, now arriving at mission area," Setsuna calmly reports into the mission recorder for the report to Veda. "Cease GN Particle dispersal upon arrival at target location." A sub-window opened up on Exia's main monitor, showing a zoomed-in view of his target: the AEU's brand-new Enact. "Target confirmed. Proceeding with first phase on schedule."

With a slight adjustment to its descent course, Exia continues to move in on the testing facility without any further deviations to its path.

— AEU military test facility command center —

One of the operators of the AEU's testing base notices the incoming speck of light that is the descending Exia and turns to inform the base commander. "Captain! We have an incoming silhouette!"

"What?" the base commander asks, surprised. The airspace was supposed to be clear of all other military units for the unveiling exercise, after all. Who could be approaching the base right now?

"It's at 3 o'clock sir," the operator who noticed the incoming unit informs the commander.

"Whose unit is it? Warn them off! This is an exercise, dammit!" the commander demands.

"It's not showing up on radar!" One of the operators manning the sensor station reports, very careful to contain his surprise. Like the captain said, this was an exercise, no point in breaking procedure, after all.

"Nothing on the sub-sensors, either!" another of the sensor operators reports. Now the captain was getting concerned. It didn't show up on _any_ of the base's detection systems? Guess it was time to do this the old-fashioned way.

"Track it with the main camera!" the base commander orders. A few seconds later, a screen appears on the main monitor, showing a zoomed in view of the descending Exia. Confusion fills him, as he's never seen a machine like it before. "What kind of a unit is that…?"

— Ptolemaios, Veda terminal —

Within the main Veda terminal of Celestial Being's flagship, Ptolemaios, Tieria floats serenely in the center of a sea of data readouts, his eyes closed as he watches Exia's descent through the Gundam's OS, derived from, and linked to, the quantum processing computer.

After a few moments longer, he opens his eyes. "It has begun," he says to no one in particular.

— Testing Grounds —

"What? An unknown?" the Enact's test pilot asks over his pilot suit's comms for clarification. "Why now, of all times?"

His question would go unanswered, however, as his comms cut out due to GN Particle interference, eliciting a wince from the sudden burst of static filling his comm channel. As he looked up however, he saw it and immediately recognized what it was. "A Mobile Suit?"

The Exia's descent didn't go unnoticed by the audience, either. The Union technical advisor even voices his surprise, as he didn't recognize the unit either, but was awed by its silhouette. "Incredible… I didn't know the AEU had another new model!"

"I don't think that belongs to the AEU…" Merrygate counters. Something about this didn't sit right with her…

She wasn't the only to feel something off about the approaching Gundam. Her fellow Ace, however, was focused on something else about the unknown. "That light…"

Soon enough, Exia lands with barely a sound beyond the hum of its GN Drive, which soon dies down as it ceases to disperse GN Particles, and then turns to face the Enact. Back in the stands, an AEU military official quickly overcomes his surprise and pulls out his cell phone, attempting to contact the Enact's pilot. "Enact? Can you hear me, Enact?" he asks, only to get no response. "Patrick?! Damnit, I can't get through…!"

"What? What's going on here?" a nearby officer asks, confused.

This exchange doesn't go unheard by the Union personnel, the male ace giving voice to the one thing they're all thinking. "Communications are out…?"

It was at that point that one of the guards walks over next to them. "Everyone," the guard starts, drawing the attention of all of the observers, "we've been advised to evacuate."

As the AEU officials and other observers begin to do just that, the Union technical advisor looks at the new arrival on the test grounds in shock. "You mean it's _not_ an AEU model?" he asks. "Then whose is it?!"

While this was happening, the pilot of the Enact hops into the pilot's chair as it retracts back into the cockpit compartment. "Alright, who the hell are you?" he asks cockily over the external speakers as he starts up the machine. "From the Union? Human Reform League? Well, either way, you've stormed in here uninvited, and now you're gonna pay the price!"

The Enact's visor lights up a pattern on the left side of its face in a futile attempt to intimidate the Exia's pilot. Meanwhile, his actions draw the attention of two of the officers in the AEU's research and development division. "What the hell is that idiot doing?" the first officer to notice reacts in surprise and outrage. "Doesn't he know how much went into developing that thing?!"

The other walks over and calms down his companion. "It's a good opportunity; this'll just raise the value of the Enact," he counters as he looks over to the machine. "Heh… after all, Patrick Colasour _is_ our military's top ace, right? His personality's a little problematic, though…"

Back in the cockpit of the Enact, Patrick Colasour… is still metaphorically poking the bear. "Hey! Do you know who I am?" he asks cockily. "I'm Patrick Colasour, the AEU's Ace of Aces!"

The Union ace known as Merrygate snorts in amusement and rolls her eyes at Patrick's boast, a single thought in her mind. 'The old man would blast you out of the sky before you even knew he was anywhere within 20 kilometers of you.'

Given that he isn't psychic, Merrygate's mental retort went unheard by Patrick Colasour, who simply continued to boast. "I've never lost a mock battle, cause I'm just that special!" With a flick of the controls, the Enact's right wrist rotated so that the Linear Rifle was out of the way before the weapons rack on the right forearm pops open, the rail sliding out a handle which the Enact grabs with its left hand. "So don't say I didn't warn you!" Patrick boasts, bringing the device up in front of it, a dagger blade pops out from within the shaft, revealing it to be the Enact's Sonic Blade. The blade then begins to vibrate, causing it to release a subsonic frequency that causes the evacuating spectators in the stands to clutch their ears in pain.

"That idiot!" the AEU official who berated Patrick's decision shouts in irritation.

"Well?!" Patrick goads over the external speakers as the Enact charges at Exia blade-first. "Come on!"

"Exia," Setsuna says calmly into the Exia's mission recorder. "Proceeding with target elimination."

Not even a second later, Exia's eyes flash as the GN Sword deploys in blade configuration. With a broad, vertical sweep, Exia cleaves off the Enact's hand at the wrist, sending the dismembered section of limb into the air, fingers still clutched around the Sonic Blade.

"Oh my!/What the hell?!" The Merrygate and MSWAD Ace exclaim simultaneously at the sudden, incredible performance demonstrated by the Exia. The severed hand lands nearby a few seconds later, the Sonic Blade still held in its fingers continuing to vibrate for a second longer before falling silent.

Patrick Colasour gaped at the sight of his Enact having been damaged before recovering his wits and, unfortunately, falling victim to outrage and incredulity at what just happened. "You bastard! You don't get it, do you?!" He shouts as he brings up the Enact's Linear Rifle and fires off a shot, which Exia dodges with an expert spin while drawing the Beam Saber docked behind its right shoulder with its left hand, igniting the energy blade as it begins to chop the Enact to pieces.

First the Enact loses the remainder of its left arm as Patrick tries to block Exia's Beam Saber with the Defense Rod. "I'm…" A swipe of the GN Sword deprives the Enact of its remaining arm. "special!" With one last swing from the Beam Saber, Exia takes the Enact's head. "I've done _two thousand_…" Exia raises its right arm, Beam Saber deactivating as Setusna returns the energy blade to its charging dock. He then swings the arm down as the GN Sword switches to its inactive docking configuration as the Enact tips over backwards and falls on its back. "of these mock battles…!"

Back in the stands, all of the spectators and guards can only look on in stunned silence at how quickly and effortlessly the AEU's brand new Enact had been torn apart. One spectator in particular seems almost infatuated and, spying a chance to learn something – _anything_ – about the mysterious new Mobile Suit, reaches down. "Excuse me!" the Union's MSWAD ace says as he abruptly plucks a pair of binoculars right from the hands of the man sitting in the row ahead of him to look at the Exia more closely.

"Hey! Uh…" the man who had been holding the binoculars exclaims, looking back at the blonde man uncertainly at how he was already looking through them intently.

"I said 'excuse me'," the Union ace replies uncaringly to the man, more focused on the machine in the binoculars. Sweeping up the Exia starting with the legs, he can find no identifying markings to confirm what, _exactly_, the machine before him is, until he gets to the head and barely notices something there. Zooming in, he finds a single word etched into the forehead of the machine. "Gun… dam…" he says slowly, pronouncing the unfamiliar word before lowering the binoculars. "Is that the _name_ of the Mobile Suit, or something else?"

"A Gundam…?" the technical advisor questions, looking at the machine his compatriot has now identified as a Gundam.

Within Exia's cockpit, Setsuna finishes confirming his status and the state of the AEU's prototype Mobile Suit. "Exia, first phase complete," he calmly speaks into the mission recorder. "Now proceeding to second phase."

With a building "whirr", the Flywheel of Exia's GN Drive spins to life once more, GN Particles scattering as Exia lifts off the ground once more and turns on the spot before ascending into the airspace around the orbital elevator.

"Again, with that light," the blond Union ace observes.

"How can it fly without a propulsion system…?" the tech advisor wonders.

"Maybe it has one, and we just can't recognize it?" the green-haired ace suggests.

Back at ground level, the cockpit of the Enact opens and Patrick finally climbs out, resting one leg on the lip of the cockpit hatch as he looks around frantically. "Where is he?! Where'd he go?!" he asks indignantly before raising his voice. "My name is Patrick Colasour! You better not forget this…!"

The male Union ace notices this and looks down at the Enact in wonder. "Impressive… I guess the brand new Enact deserves high marks for pilot safety," he comments before looking back skyward. "But that machine was something else."

"I'll say," his fellow ace remarks as she continues to follow Exia's trail of light. "Was this meant to sabotage the AEU's military development program, or is it a harbinger of things to come…?"

"Time will tell. Regardless, there's no way the AEU's gonna take this lying down."

True to the blonde ace's words, the military base was already alive with activity, the air raid siren blaring as Helions in fighter mode began taxying onto runways and lifting off to engage the Gundam.

— Low-Orbital Ring, Celestial Being Flagship Carrier Ptolemaios —

Using the orbital ring as camouflage, Celestial Being's flagship carrier, the Ptolemaios, floated serenely through space; its escort, the ATX Team's Carrier-type Assault Cruiser Arkbird, matching pace close behind it to benefit from the stealth effects its GN Particle screen.

"Ptolemy, maintaining perimeter field density in Mission Mode. Arkbird is maintaining stealth position relative to Ptolemy's trajectory," Christina Sierra the brunette bridge bunny of Celestial Being, reports from her station. "Exia has now passed the scheduled operation time for the first phase. It has likely moved on to second phase."

"I wonder if Setsuna's doing alright," Lasse Aeon, one of the Ptolemy's pilots, muses out loud, worried for the youngest of the Gundam Meisters.

The black-haired man's co-pilot, the less-built brunette Lichtendahl Tsery, Lichty for short, looks over with a joking smile. "If he isn't, well, then that's the end of Celestial Being."

"That's enough idle chatter, you guys," Christina snaps at the two pilots before returning her attention to her console as the door to the bridge opens. "It's almost time to begin the third phase."

"I don't know what you're getting so worked up about," Sumeragi quips with an easygoing smile as she drifts up to behind the captain's chair as she holds up one of her bottles of alcohol. "This is Celestial Being's big debut; let's do it with flair."

"Hey! Are you _drinking_?!" Christy asks in shock.

Lichty looks at Sumeragi from over his shoulder upon Christina's outburst. "Uh, did I hear that right?"

"Why not?" Sumeragi asks without a care in the world. "I'm just in charge of _planning_ the missions. The rest is up to you guys." The tactical forecaster then takes a long pull of her beverage before looking out into the void before her with a carefully maintained, neutral gaze.

The ring just behind the nose of the Ptolemaios rotates around until the four containers attached to it form a plus shape, the nose of the craft then opening up like a maw as the Ptolemaios prepares to launch the two Gundams it's carrying for this mission.

"Container loading complete, switching Ptolemy over to catapult mode," Feldt reports as she oversees the launch preparations. "Arkbird is now opening its starboard catapult bay door. Transferring Kyrios to catapult deck."

"A real battle, Hallelujah, just what you've always wanted," Allelujah comments, seemingly talking to himself, before sighing as he slips on his helmet. "But this is depressing for me."

— Arkbird —

"Kyrios has entered the catapult deck," Feldt's voice reports over the private comm line between Ptolemy and the Arkbird, Minerva and Aria watching from their respective seats on the bridge. "Increasing linear catapult voltage from 230 to 520. Kyrios stabilized within linear field; launch preparations complete. Arkbird, please confirm launch preparation status of Aries Tempest."

"APU active, connected to catapult," Aria rings off easily enough after she returns her attention to her station to handle the launch prep for the ATX Team's flyer. "Aries Tempête, stand by. Drop tanks and missile racks with Semi-Active Air-to-Air Missiles, hardpoint linkage confirmed. Power connections set, fuel capacity all-green. Course clear for launch. Aries Tempête: go for launch."

"Arkbird launch status confirmed," Feldt replies over the comms. "Transferring timing control to Kyrios."

"Roger, I have control," Allelujah reports. "Kyrios, Allelujah Haptism. Commencing mission."

"Aries Tempête," Ciel cheers, "Ciel Nanbu, taking flight!"

As one, the two machines fly forth from their respective carriers. Kyrios' wings and forward fins unfold while the Aries Tempête's lower legs fold into the upper legs as it assumes its own flight configuration. In a burst of particles and the flare of warship-grade engines igniting, the Gundam Kyrios and Aries Tempête take off for their mission area in preparation for phase 3 of the operation.

— "Heaven's Pillar" Orbital Elevator, Geostationary Orbital Station —

The Orbital Elevators. Colossal elevators built both to provide transit to and from earth and space, as well as form the core of the Solar Power Generation System providing the people of Earth with their alternative to increasingly scarce fossil fuels. Standing 50 megameters tall, each of these gigantic elevators is capped by a ballast satellite and spaced equidistantly along Earth's equatorial line, connected by a low-orbital ring and a high-orbital ring. The upper ring connecting the elevators is lined with a massive photovoltaic collection array, and is the main component of the solar power system. The second of the two completed towers to be completed, the Human Reform League's elevator, named Tenchū, or "Heaven's Pillar", is the current locale for a very important event in the history of the HRL.

"Orbital elevator number two, better known as 'Heaven's Pillar'," a female reporter says as the broadcast of said event begins. "Here on the geostationary orbital station, a festive party is going on celebrating the tenth anniversary of the station's first electricity transmission! Partygoers include ambassadors from the Human Reform League member nations, corporate executives, and military personnel, all of whom contributed to the construction of the orbital elevator itself."

As the reporter makes her special broadcast, the camera sweeping to give the viewers planetside a shot of some of the partygoers, a butler floats by and stops a short distance behind a young woman with well kept, teal hair wearing a backless, oriental dress. "May I, offer you a beverage?" he asks, prompting the girl to turn to him. The young man, stunned by the woman's beauty, simply lets out a breath taken "Oh…" as his face flushes.

The young woman turns and offers a cheerful smile as she folds her hands behind her back. "Yes, I'll take one," she chirps before drifting over and taking the water bottle at the center of the tray before chuckling. "You know, some people think that real men _don't_ blush." Turning around and drifting off with an amused expression as her teasing had left the young butler flustered and unsure of what to do, the young woman took a sip of her drink with a smile on her face.

Her amusement doesn't last, however, as a slightly older gentlemen, wearing a similarly oriental attire and his matching teal hair tied back into a long, thin ponytail, drifts up next to her from behind. "It has begun," he reports to the young woman, now identified as his superior, "my mistress."

Lowering her drink, the young woman's mouth was now the faintest of frowns as she acknowledged her subordinate's report. "Finally," she replies. "They're making their move."

— Ptolemy bridge —

As she watched Kyrios, Virtue, which had launched not long after its companions, and the Aries Tempête fade into specks of light in the distance, Sumeragi didn't bother to stop the one thought on her mind from being vocalized. "Here come the Gundam Meisters," she says with an expressionless face, "of Celestial Being."

* * *

**Technical Specifications:**

**Type: Custom High-Speed Interception Mobile Suits**

**Model Number: AMS-07Tp**

**Unit Name: Aries Tempête**

**Head Height: 18.5 meters**

**Base Weight: 18 tons**

**Power Plant: Minovsky Ultracompact Fusion Reactor**

**Generator Output: 1530kW**

**Armor: Titanium Alloy**

**Crew: Pilot Only (in cockpit in torso)**

**General Information:**

**Manufacturer: Ciel Nanbu**

**Design Base:  
OZ-07AMS Aries  
MSN-00100 Hyaku Shiki  
SVMS-01 Union Flag**

**Operator: ATX Team  
Celestial Being**

**Pilot: Ciel Nanbu**

**Equipment (Standard):**

**Wing Hardpoints  
Hardpoints mounted on the Aries Tempête's large thigh wings for mounting mission-specific equipment. One hardpoint is mounted on the top and bottom of each wing.**

**MMI-M729 Thruster Engine  
Replacing the engines of the base Aries, the Aries Tempête mounts a quartet of the same MMI-M729 Thruster Engines seen on the GINN High Maneuver Type. These warship-grade engines provide the Aries with unprecedented acceleration as well as a vast travel range in both space and atmosphere.**

**Equipment (Optional):**

**Drop Tank  
Disposable fuel tanks for extending the Aries Tempête's already considerable flight range. Can be mounted on both the top and bottom wing hardpoints.**

**Munitions Rack  
A weapons rack for mounting additional weapons systems to the hardpoints on the main wings of the Aries Tempête. Variants include single-row hardpoint mounts for standard and rocket-propelled ballistic weapon pods, multi-slot weapons racks for guided missiles and bombs, and a heavy mounting enclosure for direct energy weapons. The single-row mounts can be equipped to both the top and bottom hardpoints, while the multi-slot weapons rack can only be equipped to the bottom hardpoints. The heavy mounting enclosures take up both hardpoints on each wing.**

**Armaments (Standard):**

**110mm Machine Cannon:  
A pair of 110mm Machine Cannons built into the torso of the Aries Tempête to replace the Aries Chain Rifle in its default armaments. These shell-firing Chain Guns boast a significant increase in firepower and a similar rate of fire compared to the Chain Rifle, and are used primarily for close combat and aerial-superiority dogfighting.**

**Beam Rifle:  
A custom, arm-mounted Beam Rifle added to the Aries Tempête's weapon profile for use against Mobile Suits. Derived from the Beam Rifle of the Barzam, it has a good blend of precision, shot output, and rate of fire as a result of having a direct connection to the Tempête's reactor. Speculated to have an additional Beam Saber mode for close combat, but if this function exists, it has yet to be used.**

**Armaments (Optional):**

**Tail Unit:  
An ejectable weapons container similar in form and function to Kyrios' bombing unit. It is mounted on a hardpoint on the back of the Aries Tempête, between the shoulder-mounted MMI-M729 Thruster Engines. Like the Kyrios' bomber unit, it can function as either a 12-cell VLS for high-yield guided warheads or a high-capacity bomb rack for 750lb laser-guided bombs.**

**AtA Missiles:  
Mounted on the multi-slot Munitions Rack for dogfighting purposes. These Air-to-Air Missiles come in three main varieties: multi-targeting XMAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile), long range SAAM (Semi-Active Air-to-Air Missile), and short range, all-aspect QAAM (Quick-Maneuver Air-to-Air Missile).**

**AtG Missiles:  
Mounted on the multi-slot Munitions Rack for ground attack purposes. These Air-to-Ground Missiles come in two main flavors: Multi-targeting XAGM (Advanced Air-to-Ground Missile), and long range LASM (Long-Range Air-to-Surface Missile).**

**Multi-Purpose Missiles:  
A middle ground between the Air-to-Air and Air-to-Ground missile options for the multi-slot Munitions Rack. These medium-range, multi-targeting missiles can lock on to both air and ground targets simultaneously. The trade-off for this versatility, however, is that the Multi-Purpose Missiles lack the dedicated impact of the Air-to-Air and Air-to-Ground missile options, making it a Jack-of-All-Trades, Master-of-None weapon option.**

**Bombs:  
An alternate air-to-ground weapon for the multi-slot Munitions Rack. Bomb options include 1000lb Unguided, Fuel-Air Explosive, Self-Forging Fragmentation Submunitions, and the same 750lb Laser-Guided type usable by the Tail Unit.**

**120mm Revolver Cannon:  
A high-caliber gun pod for the single-row Munitions Rack. Designed to augment the Aries Tempête's dogfighting capability. This shell-firing weapon has a slower rate-of-fire than the Aries Tempête's integrated Machine Cannons, but makes up for this with greater range, precision, and anti-armor capability.**

**Rocket Pod:  
A seven-tube Rocket Pod for the single-row Munitions Rack. This weapon launches unguided, rocket-propelled munitions with proximity fuse detonators. While it has much less combat endurance and accuracy than the 120mm Revolver Cannon, it has far greater destructive potential against both air and ground targets.**

**TLS-X01 "Caliburn" Directed Energy Weapon:  
Also called the "Caliburn" Tactical Laser System, "Caliburn", or TLS, this experimental weapon can only be equipped to the heavy mounting enclosure Munitions Racks at the expense of all other hardpoint equipment. A high-intensity optical weapon, it emits a concentrated chemical laser beam with a long firing range and is, without question, the Aries Tempête's most powerful weapon system. Because of technical limitations, the beam can only fire straight ahead, and each unit only contains enough chemical gas and coolant for eight beams with a continuous firing time of about six seconds each before becoming little more than dead weight, while the exposed hydraulic cables mean that a skilled, or lucky, enough shot can sever the weapon's connection to its supply of "ammunition".**

* * *

**And that's chapter, as well as the first actual ATX Team Mobile Suit profile. Specifically, for the Aries Tempête, the flight-type machine of the Force's repertoire. Man, there was a lot of hardpoint stuff to cover there. Now, I'm sure at least some of you are confused as to why this chapter is pretty much just the first half of 00S1E1 sans a new OC and a brief scene-edit to include the ATX Team. I do apologize if that is the case, but there **_**is**_** a method to my madness.**

**Things are **_**just**_** kicking off for Celestial Being at this point, and so things are going to be sticking pretty close to canon until the Gundam Meisters start hitting their stride. Based on my own (current) estimates, expect the full ATX Team to be deployed for the first time somewhere around the HRL's Gundam Capture Operation, and then the full team participating in an op during the global intervention against La Edenra. As for the surprise OC, she is a new character the "Generation Mode" system has introduced to the setting to provide a sort of counterpoint to the ATX Team's presence in the new flow of events – an early Butterfly Effect, if you will – and she won't be the last. Also, bonus points for anyone who can figure out what game this character's inspiration comes from. The only hint you're getting is that it comes from a game available to a **_**previous**_** generation of gaming consoles. I'm still working out **_**exactly**_** how many Butterfly Effect OCs will be brought in, but expect one, **_**maybe**_** two, military counterpart(s) for each ATX Team member.**

**Anyway, I think that's all for this chapter. I'll try to have the next one out in a shorter time than it took for this one to finally get out, but I make no guarantees, considering my difficulties with paying attention and the bit of hoop-jumping I ended up having to do to upload _this_ chapter. As always, constructive criticism is welcomed and highly appreciated. Until next time, this is Spiceracksargent001: signing out!**


End file.
